Student Bloggers
The Pressures of Being Abroad
Date
November 19, 2013Before going abroad and while being abroad I often hear the phrase, "Make the most of your experience." While the sentiment certainly rings true, and should for any student abroad, it also puts a lot of pressure on your experience.
Most of this past week has been spent doing schoolwork and preparing for another trip, meaning that I haven't had a chance to further enjoy new aspects of Dublin or run off to another part of Ireland. This lack of adventuring has set in a new brand of anxiety in me, forcing me to ask myself the dreaded question, "Am I wasting precious time?"
The quick answer is, I am not.
I realize that no matter how many times my feet walk the familiar paths to Trinity, amble aimlessly around St. Stephen's Green, or head to my favorite pub, they are walking the same path that many "greats" of Dublin did. Each cobblestone I tread on in Trinity very well may share the same path as Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett, or Edmund Burke. Every old pub holds the reference or footsteps of James Joyce. Even Grafton Street and Henry Street hold the footsteps of Glen Hansard, star of the film Once, set in Dublin.
No matter how familiar each path and experience is, it is shared with an incomprehensible amount of exemplary humans famous or unknown. Where your feet land, trip, or step is a part of you learning your way around a city many others have walked, and that will never stop being amazing.
So with each stone my foot decides to press upon I know I am making the most of my time in Dublin, because to put it very simply: I am here.