On August 29th, 2015, I moved into my new home. I ventured thousands of miles from the Cohasset, Massachusetts house I know and love, and even further from my comfort zone. My new home has become Cuirt na Coiribe, in Galway, Ireland.
I entered my shiny new apartment completely jetlagged and unsure of what Irish life had in store for me. As an American college student at The College of the Holy Cross, I have never ventured far from home and my college is only an hour a half drive from my house, on the outskirts of Boston. Sure, I have been on a couple trips to Europe with my family and my friends from school, but never for more than two weeks. I never really had the time to embrace the culture and become a part of it, but rather was an outsider of the mysterious new lands I observed. But now I have been given the opportunity to live in this new culture, absorb this new way of life, and to find myself a new home.
I’ve been a Galway girl for just over a month now, and I’m not going to lie, the journey has been a difficult one. I went into this year expecting a never-ending vacation; a getaway of relaxation, sightseeing, food-tasting, and even partying-but Galway has become so much more than that for me. Being here a month I feel as though I have gotten the urge for Galway sightseeing and tourism out of me within the first week. Galway is not a giant place, and with multiple tours and a few leisurely strolls down Eyre Square I was definitely able to recognize and become moderately comfortable with the area in a matter of weeks. However, it is the way of life and the realization that I will not go back to my home until Christmas that I am still having trouble getting used to. It is extremely difficult to be thousands of miles away from my siblings, parents, and closest friends, with no hope of seeing them until a short break in December. The thought of spending Thanksgiving miles away from my twenty crazy cousins, aunts and uncles, and newborn second cousins hurts. The fact that the wifi is so unreliable here that I cannot contact my parents when I want to has not been easy. And most importantly, the fact that I do not have the ability to drive back to Cohasset whenever I am missing home and my family frustrates me beyond belief.
This being said, I would not change a thing. The move from America to Ireland for a year of my life has been one of the most important decisions I think I will ever make as a young adult. Ireland has become my home. Galway is my home. Home. Although it has its ups and downs, studying abroad has expanded my capacity to think and see the world in so many ways. I have a new mind-set and way of thinking that would not be possible if I was stuck in the same bubble I have been in for the majority of my life. Don’t get me wrong, I love that I grew up in a small town and go to a school in which I recognize most, if not everyone’s faces. However, change is needed to grow, and I think this year will be my biggest growth spurt yet.
Already, my friends from Holy Cross and I have travelled to Amsterdam, Brussels, and Munich, and I leave for Venice tomorrow. The amount of exploration and adventure my new home has to offer amazes me. Sure, it is still pretty expensive to jet off every weekend, but I’d rather spend my entire life savings on as many adventures as I can than a new pair of jeans. Every place I go is so different in it’s language, food, human nature, and atmosphere that I am in a whirlwind with every trip. I just want to keep exploring and adventuring and never stop.
Despite the billion places I am aching to see and explore, Ireland is my home and I would not change a thing. We have already explored so much of the land, but there is so much more to see that I don’t even know if a year here will be enough. We have ventured down to Galway Bay, and the rainbow-colored houses were out of a storybook. We’ve hiked the Aran Islands and seen the most breathtaking cliffs I have ever laid eyes on. We have taken an exhausting 6 hour bus ride to Dingle to enjoy the amazing little town on the water, and we have roughed through rocky boat rides to the Blasket Islands to admire the beauty of the untouched land.
I feel as though I have seen the world, but it’s only been a month here. I still have so much to explore, so much to culture to absorb, food to eat, pubs to crawl, wildlife to see, and friends to make here in my new home. I know that Galway will treat me right and I feel blessed to have the opportunity to become a Galway girl in one of the friendliest cities in the world-a place I can now call home.