Ahhh, my friends, we have reached end and all is over. I am sorting my laundry, throwing out old notebooks and packing my bags for the final time. This is it... in the immortal words of Drake and someone called Majid: "Just hold on we're going home" (although personally I feel like it would make much more sense and look prettier if it were "Just hold on, we're going home!" But hey, that's just me). Yup, I'm ready to "hit the road, Jack." Gettin' "on the road again..." because as we all know: "there's no place like home for the holidays."
Okay, okay, I'm done making music puns... for now. But in all seriousness, I am getting my things together. I do have a final exam on tomorrow morning, but after that I am headed to Shannon Airport for my last flight of the holiday season. I've been in Ireland since August 28th, that's a really long time! It's over three months that I've lived here. While I was here I traveled all around Ireland and the UK. I visited the famous Cliffs of Moher, Blarney Castle, Kylemore Abbey and the Dublin Zoo. I saw the hills of Connemara. I walked the ruins of Inisheer. Drove past Trinity College and the Book of Kells, after spending a weekend up in Belfast. I explored Giant's Causeway and crossed the perilous Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge! I hopped over to Glasgow where I found a giant cactus and learned about tenements and the Commonwealth Games. I popped over to Edinburgh where I fell in love with a city with a magical air. I even dared to explore the Highlands twice, and made it to Nessy's waters. I wandered through the sights and sounds of London-town and ventured through the Oxford Castle. Indeed, I did a lot in my travels! I also did a lot here in Galway.
I made friends with my peers and I volunteered at an elementary school. I helped my homestay hosts with chores like cleaning and cooking... we even made Thanksgiving dinner! I went to classes and learned a bit too. Sure, I learned about Modernization Theory, Dependency Theory and the global health crisis in Change and Development. I also learned about contemporary piracy and the Cod Wars in Ocean and Marine Politics. My eyes were opened to the theories and politics of the Green Revolution and other Green movements throughout the world via Environmentalism. And I learned how people learn and how important literacy is for life in Service Learning. But, at the end of the day, I learned so much more than that. I learned about myself. And here are some things I learned because of study abroad that I would never have learned in any other situation:
1) No matter where you are in the world, all the same things matter. Friends, family, pets. You can't escape any of that while you're abroad. So if you're thinking of studying abroad because you're sick of your family or had a fight with your friends back home, you're not going to get away from the bad feelings you're trying to get away from. However, it also means that the love and comradery that you feel with friends and family who are hundreds of miles away sticks, and is in fact amplified across the distance. Additionally, you will find that as it matters at home to you and everyone around you, it matters wherever you go around the world. You will always find little moments of happiness and joy that are sparked by a mom's smile to her child, comfort from a best friend's hug when things just aren't working out, or the agelessly adorable sight of an old man, happy as a clam, with his dog walking by his side. These moments happen in your neighborhood at home, in Riverdale, in Galway and in London alike. It's human nature, and you can't avoid it.
2) Absence really does make the heart grow fonder. It's true... it's corny and silly and down right holiday-movie-esk but absence does makes the heart grow fonder. I miss my family. After witnessing all those cutesy little moments that I described above for months on end, I can't help but desperately miss experiencing them for myself! I can't wait to step off the train and see my mom smiling at me with open arms... or an open car door, really at this point either works. I would give anything to hug my friends back home, or make amends (let's not forget lesson numero uno). And honestly, I've never seen a man as happy to walk his dog as my dad... the sight of him with our dog, Lucy, is just too cute.... This is making me sound like a Peanut's monologue...
3) Food is a serious business, and no food is like home food. Let's be real, food is not food unless it's the food you get at home. I cannot stress enough how wonderful and lovely it was to have a Thanksgiving here in Ireland, but guys. It's just not the same. I have tried every Mexican food joint in this city (of which there are an over abundance) and it's just not right. The same with pizza... and even get me started on plain turkey sandwiches... there's no rye bread here! Now don't get me wrong, I've had lots of traditional Irish, Scottish and English dishes and they are all good and stuff... in their own right... you know. But, it's just not the same at all. I've grown quite tired of chicken or meat pies with potatoes and peas. In fact, I'm so sick of potatoes that I can't bring myself to eat them without grimacing. But I digress. All in all, I miss the food, and you will too if/when you go away for over three months.
4) Travelling is awesome, it's inspiring and cool and fun... but travel is also very tiring. We are so used to seeing the pictures of other people's vacations where everything looks so pretty and different from what we're used to. Everyone is smiling and it looks super awesome. What pictures don't show us is how exhausted the people taking them are. I can't tell you how many cups of tea and coffee I had to drink while on my last trip to Scotland and England. I think I was living on caffeine. Sleeping in hostels is not all that fun, the fun wears off really quickly when there's a stranger above you who is snoring as loud as a train or when they turn and the bunk bed squeaks and shakes and feels like it is about to fall apart on top of you, threatening to flatten you out like a pancake (anyone familiar with the book Flat Stanley can level with me on this). Pictures also fail to show how many pictures were taken before the perfect one was shot. They fail to explain how numb and frozen the photographer might feel, how painful the rain can be when it's blown against her face and into her open eyes. They fail to express the longing the photographer has to both capture the beauty of her surroundings while also trying to capture something to remind her of home. It's really tiring to be away, it's fun and it's cool and I wouldn't trade this experience for the world, but I am pretty tired of being away.
So yeah, it's the end. I've made it. We've made it. I can't wait to see all you back home in Riverdale. Until then, farewell and happy holidays from yours truly.
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