Happiness is pleasure plus memories plus people
Arthur Brooks
Wow, I cannot believe it is over. Less than a week ago, I was in Ireland, trekking across the mountains, fields, towns, farms, and islands of that beautiful country. There is far too much to talk about in a single post, so I want to focus on one of the aspects that I hope to carry with me beyond the trip; my friends. Perhaps it’s cliche to say, but it truly is about the friends you make along the way. I cannot imagine the trip any other way, and it was honestly in large part due to them that I had such a great time. I still remember the first day when we all landed and met each other for the first time: the awkwardness of the introductions, the forced conversations, and just generally wondering if we could all be friends. We all come from very different backgrounds and majors, and only a few people knew each other beforehand. I know for myself that they were not people that I would have hung out with normally on campus, or even would have had the chance to interact with, but I’m so happy that we all found our way to this study abroad. Who truly knows how these things happen, but by the end of the first day out, it was clear that we were all clicking together, and by the end of the second we were friends. We had in-jokes and running gags that we can try to explain to our friends and family back home, but they truly “had to have been there” to fully understand. Having those close friendships made the trips we had so much better because we could talk and make jokes during the hikes or the bus rides and point out silly things in the museums, all to make the experiences so much more memorable. And since we all genuinely enjoyed each other’s company, we did our best to always eat dinner together (sometimes difficult with 14 people) or go to the pubs together or simply sit up in someone’s room late into the night talking about both the deep and the silly things of life. It was a sad day when our trip ended, not just because we loved the beauty of Ireland, but because we loved each other. I know I am not alone in hoping that we continue to hang out and grow deeper in friendship.