I have now been home for about two weeks, and I miss Dublin more and more every day. The experiences that I had, both professional and others, I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Professionaly, I feel like I have learned so much that will be useful later on in my life. Not only that, but the things that I got to do and experience for my job was something very unique and interesting to me. As I have written about before, I interned at an event management and booking company. I got the chance to do things that I would never have been able to do if I did not have this internship. I got to write up contracts for big-time musicians and comedians, take control of the company’s expenses and manage how much income was coming in and how much was being spent, and I even got to create an original template for the entire company to use in order to calculate their estimated revenue and costs for each show. These operations were all different but helped me gain different perspectives on how to complete different projects within the same company. I also got to meet a couple of famous musicians, including Coolio, who created the song “Gangsta’s Paradise”. That was one of the coolest things I have ever done in a workplace. When I was not working, I got to go out and experience a whole bunch of different areas and landmarks which really helped me get an appreciation of Ireland’s beautiful landscape. Being able to live in Dublin got me accustomed to the culture that my family lived in for years, and I feel like that has given me a connection to my family that I had never had before. I even got to visit and meet some family that lived up in Northern Ireland. I had never met them before, and it was a life-changing experience to meet them. And overall I think it was a life-changing experience to go to Ireland, which I truly appreciate more than anything else, and I have to thank my donor Paul Hillier for assisting me in living my dream with the scholarship that was granted to me.

I have definitely grown in a number of ways due to my study abroad experience in Dublin. I mentioned this in an earlier blog, but it is important to reiterate in my opinion. I came into Dublin kind of scared about how I was going to keep myself alive. I never knew how to cook and I often was lazy when it came to chores around the house and my college dorms. When I was in Dublin, I forced myself to learn how to cook basic meals, which truly helped my budgeting plans. I also found myself constantly cleaning to keep my room and surrounding area clean. I made sure I was on time to work every single day, and I constantly stayed attentive and determined to work every single day without getting bored. I truly believe that I have taken the first steps in becoming an actual adult, and that will help a lot when I finish college, as I believe I am much more prepared for the post-college life than I was before. Professionally and academically go hand-in-hand for me, as the most important thing I am taking away from this experience is how I taught myself to be attentive and happy to be working, instead of bored and angry. I use to find that I hated to work and would often be lazy with work and school, but now I have found a fire in me that has me determined to work the best I can. I would have never found that without going to Ireland and having this internship, and this new fire is super important for me when it comes to finishing these last two years of college and working for the years after that.

The one thing I have taken away from my experience that I am absolutely going to use at Pitt is the skill of communication and using my voice. I often find that in school I do not say much and just do my work, but since my internship required a lot of speaking and communication, I am much more comfortable with both speaking my mind and asking questions. And the asking questions part is even more important for Pitt, as I try to never ask questions and just do the work how I interpret it. Now that I want to ask more questions, I can start communicating with my professors about how I should be operating in their class and with their work, which will boost my desire to learn and my grade in my classes.

Ireland is an experience that I will never forget, and I will treasure it forever. Thanks to all who actually read my blogs, even if absolutely no one did! I had a great time sharing my thoughts and am pretty sad that it is over. See you all at Pitt!