As I sit here in my dorm room on a Sunday morning thinking about the cold and dreading the wind I see outside my window, I continuously scroll through my pictures from this past summer, thinking about the warmth, freedom, and enjoyment I felt during the months before school started.
Besides graduating from high school, packing up for college, working for some extra money, and vacationing/stay-cationing with my family and best friends, this summer was special because I was able to take a trip to another continent, and more specifically, to a place I had always dreamed about seeing.
My nana is originally from Ireland, and she immigrated to the U.S. when she was a teenager. Growing up, I heard tons of stories about her home, from her or one of her seven children, one of them being my dad. We had pictures hung up in our hallways of thatched cottages and rolling hills, a giant book about the etymology of Irish names, and signs with Irish sayings. I always hoped that I would be able to journey to the place I had learned so much about.
When my nana told me she wanted to take me to Ireland in the summer after I graduated, I was so excited, there were so many things I wanted to see, and because a lot of her family is still there, a lot of people I couldn’t wait to meet. I had never been on a plane before, so I got my passport, braced myself for a first flight over the ocean, which wasn’t that bad at all, and before I knew it I was going through the final doors at Shannon.
I loved my trip because everything about Ireland is beautiful. There are mountains, their tops covered with fog in the early morning, there is ocean, and jellyfish peeking out of the sand, there are animals (dogs everywhere), roaming through the fields, and where I went, everyone knew each other, as if all were part of a gigantic family. I was able to meet so many of my own family members, who, although they had never met me before, treated me as if I had been with them all along. With that, I was able to develop closer relationships with some of my family from the U.S., because they had accompanied me across the Atlantic and were creating all of these wonderful memories alongside me. The days were so full of adventure and experience, as I watched the sheep sheared on the farm and visited the old churches of the countryside, and the nights were loud, full of family card games and supper at 2 A.M., only to follow that with staying up even later to talk about anything under the sun (or at this point, the moon).
In two and a half weeks, of course I missed my family back home, but I also loved this new one I had had the amazing opportunity to meet. I got to do things I before had only dreamt about, such as pet a new lamb, stand at the head of the corridor in Trinity College’s breathtaking library, and take a double-decker bus tour of Dublin during the summer of the historical 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. Most of all, I felt that I truly absorbed all the country had to offer, and was able to appreciate it more than anything I had experienced before.
I encourage everyone to follow their family history and go to the place where it all began. This earth is beautiful, and if you have special ties to the land you are visiting, you are suddenly surrounded by such an enhanced perfection. My experience was everything I could have imagined and more, I cannot wait to go back, and I hope that everybody in this world gets the chance, someday, to also have the trip of a lifetime.
