As George said, "All things must pass." Reflections on my semester in Galway

Well here it is, the post I have never taken the time to think about but I dread it as I type these words. While I do not leave Ireland until May 22nd, I will be spending the last two days in Dublin and so I actually have only one more full week in Galway City. This will most likely be another long post. Keep your Kleenex nearby, there will be some sentimentality in the air.

On January 3, 2010, I arrived in Dublin far too early in the morning jetlagged but filled with anticipation and curiosity at the coming semester in Ireland. My whole life I have been surrounded by my rich irish heritage and have been told so many stories about ancestors and the country itself, from the politics to the world famous emerald green landscape. Now, for five months, I was actually going to live in Ireland, on my own.

Things moved so quickly and that Dublin orientation was rapidly in the past as I settled into my home in Galway City, the best city in Ireland. In this trend of quickness, I found a great group of friends that I have stuck with this whole five months and I am sure I will stick with them for many years to come. I am blessed to have found such great friends in such a short amount of time. Seeing each other at all of hours of the day, everyday, may have helped the relationships grow as fast as they did, but I won't complain. Over the next five months we, together, experienced the transition to a new school and academic environment, the new feeling of living far away from any family or familiarity, and took incredible trips around Europe that I will never forget. I saw Edinburgh Castle, Westminster Abbey, "Oliver" in a London theatre, ate lunch under the Eiffel Tower, kissed the Blarney Stone for the second time, stood awestruck at the Giants Causeway, ate sausage and drank beer in the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, walked under the Bradenburg Gate in Berlin, crossed the Charles Bridge in Prague, spent an evening on the beach looking out on the Mediterranean Sea in Barcelona, ambled through the Prado Museum in Madrid, hiked up a mountain in the Alps to Neuschwanstein Castle, and was moved by my unfogettable afternoon at Dachau concentration camp memorial. WOW.

Those are just the beginnings of the vast wealth of memories that I will forever hold in my heart and mind. Perhaps the greatest times occurred not in those various famous European cities, but in the living rooms of my friend's apartments here in Gort na Coiribe, drinking tea, eating cookies, and laughing for hours each night as we told stories and just truly enjoyed each other's company. Furthermore, I'll never forget the afternoons walking down Shop Street in Galway, spending nights drinking a pint or two of Ireland's finest Guinness in one of many Galway pubs, or just stepping outside in the evening and admiring the spectacular Galway sky as the sun began to set. I get chills just thinking about the experience I have had these past five months and I will live in a state of shock for the next week knowing that it will soon come to an end.

While I am very much looking forward to coming home to Pearl River and living the normal life again in that great house on the corner of Oriole Street and Sandra Lane, someone might have to pull me off the streets of Galway and drag me to Dublin airport in 8 days time. For five months, I have lived in an absolutely awesome city and have experienced a whole new and differnet part of the world. The Irish people have been my fellow residents and they could not have treated any of us American students any better. Their compassion, their charm, their sense of humor, and ability to always make you feel warm and welcome is something I will always treasure. Sure they may have a few too many pints sometimes, but they are incredible people.

Though I am only 21 years old now, I have seen myself go through so many changes over the past few years and this has just been another change for the better. I have learned so much about myself and other people and I am very grateful for that.

As I get on the plane next Saturday, destination Newark Airport, it will no doubt be the epitome of bittersweet. If my friends and I could stay another five months, I'm sure we would, but we can't. I will take what I have learned here in Galway, both in and out of the classroom, and apply it to the rest of my life as best I can. I am forever grateful to Galway City and all the friends I shared this experience with.

I'll end this post with one of Ireland's greatest writers: W. B. Yeats. His poem, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, tells the story of a man who dreams of the lake isle that he used to go to as a young boy and how that place brought him so much peace and happiness. For the rest of my life, Galway City will be my lake isle of Innisfree, and I'm sure I will dream of it often.

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

Thank you to everyone who has been reading all these blog posts for the past five months. I really appreciate it and I have loved writing about my experience for you. I will see you all very soon and I can't wait.

Conor