Only The Beginning

All in all, the most memorable part of the trip as a whole were the people I met. Working 8 hours a day in an office full of people with completely different lives from my own, there was ample opportunity to exchange stories and understandings. An Irish girl not much older than me happened to start the same day that I did, and we soon realized that we walked to and from the same bus stop to commute, and would walk together. Though it was nice to hear about the day to day realities of living in Ireland, the most memorable conversations were about her experiences traveling. Since Ireland is such a small country, similar to many other countries in Europe, it is much more common to travel internationally, whereas it is much more difficult in the US. I tried to take advantage of my position as much as possible and visit as many nearby countries that I could, and I loved the thrill of being able to make a last minute decision to get on a plane the next day and explore somewhere new. Kimberly alone has spent the past two summers in India and around Asia, volunteering and exploring, and knew so much about the world. Additionally, I find myself constantly revisiting one particularly inspiring conversation I had was with my boss one morning. Jeniffer, my boss, left her home when she was not much older than me, and traveled alone to India, then Australia, and continued traveling until she eventually decided to settle down. As her piece of adult advice, she warned me to make sure I travelled before getting tied down with a career. The thought of traveling alone absolutely terrifies me, but that is exactly why I need to do it. I will carry forward the valuable lessons I learned from this experience abroad, like how and when to ask questions, and how to remain calm when you lose your wallet on the bus. Also the lessons I learned surrounding working in an office, like how to immerse myself into a foreign work culture, remain confident even when you have doubts, and participate in a lunchtime conversation with people you don’t know. Overall, the taste of another country only heightened my hunger for more new experiences, but I cannot forget the extremely valuable lessons I already learned this summer. Ever since getting home I can only think about starting to plan my next adventure.

It was so exciting to see my passport actually fill up! Look how many stamps! (And my ticket to Scotland because you do not need a passport to travel between Ireland and the UK).