On the 17th of each March, I proudly wear green and tell people I'm half Irish. I can sing almost any old Irish song, (thanks, mom), and I celebrate every single year but what does it mean to be Irish? The other 364 days of the year when people ask me what my nationality is the first thing I say is Ecuadorian. Since middle school, I can remember feeling more connected to my Ecuadorian roots than my Irish ones. Whenever I tell people I'm from South America, I'm usually met with stares of confusion and often times people tell me, "and what else," to which I also apply a bored, "Oh, I'm also Irish."
Growing up, I was never as excited of my Irish roots as I was my Ecuadorian. My grandmother would tell me how my sister, who looks more Ecuadorian than anything, told the mailman proudly that she was Irish. While I'm sure when I was younger I was proud, as I grew older I felt like it wasn't as special because it was so common. When you see me, it's hard to pinpoint where I'm from because I can look like many different ethnicities. It wasn't until recently that I felt like I was Irish.
The weeks leading up to St. Patrick's day, I realized that I went out of my own way to look up Irish music since I'm not at home and forced to listen to it every morning with my mom. I missed the house being filled with music with the familiar tunes and catchy beats. I would find myself going to school listening to "My wild Irish rose" on my way to school. After listening to Ed Sheeran's new album, "Divide," and playing it a million times, I realized I was drawn to the Irish tunes "Nancy Mulligan" and "Galway Girl." Both songs made me feel a little closer to my Irish heritage. As St. Patrick's day drew closer, I got more and more excited. Was it because of the idea of going out or was I truly excited to celebrate my heritage? I found myself thinking of myself as more Irish than I previously thought I was.
There are so many different things that make being Irish so unique. It can mean a million different things, it just depends on who it is. To me, being Irish means being close to your family and having music bring together people from all over. Being Irish means to celebrate life and enjoy all that it has to offer. It might have taken awhile but I finally found out what being Irish means to me.
