Bittersweet moments

 We have made it to the last weekend of this trip. This week has been very bittersweet. I am ready to go home, but I do not want to leave the people that I have met while I have been here. Seamus Heaney wrote a poem called Scaffolding. He talks about how scaffolding is put up to ensure that things are stable when we are building something. When you take them down, the poem says that there is a solid wall, there when you take the scaffolding down. That is what has happened with the people that we have met here.

We have put up these crutches to help us build relationships while we have been here and find friends. While having these up, they have helped not only me but the university as well. For me it has helped me to make lifelong friends whom I look forward to coming back to see, but with my family next time. For the university, it has helped us to rebuild the connections that we need to have so that the program can flourish. As we leave though, we have been taking them down and seeing the beauty of a friendship that we have built. When they come to say goodbye, it is not going to be easy, but one thing I know for sure is that this is not goodbye, this is just a see you later! 

Heavy with Memories

"Too heavy with memory, too light to forget." This is a line within Yeats's poem titled "To Ireland in the Coming Times. He wrote this in a time when the country was divided, the North and the rest of the island. The past is heavy, but it is not something that they can forget. I feel like I can hold this close to home. my time here in this country is coming to an end, and I am 100% sure heavy with memories. There have been so many experiences that I have had while I have been here that I am excited to take home with me and to carry with me for the rest of my life. 

When an event happens, there are key things that tend to stick with a person or as a group as a whole. While being here, I have had these events, key events that I am excited to take home with me. One of the first things that really stuck with me was our arrival here in Dungarvan. The fact that all of these people had no clue who we were, but they were so welcoming and were not afraid to tell us to reach out. This has happened all throughout the trip, people being so welcoming. One of our Irish friends has told me that if/when I come back, they have a spare room that I can stay in. 

The memories of all the sights that we see are things that I am looking forward to remembering for years to come. I have seen things that I never thought I would see in my life, and I have gotten to take the time while on this trip to take it all in and reflect on it when I am home with my family. These things go as vast as the vast landscapes that we have seen in the West to the big cities such as Dublin and Cork. 

One of the final memories that I will always look back on is the time that we have had with each other. There has been ups and downs but, in the end, we can look back on the times we have had together and the activities we have taken part of as a group as a whole or in smaller groups. Overall, this trip has left me with so many memories that I will look back on for years to come!