It’s all over. The exploration of Europe, my internship, and my time at UCD have all ended. Things that haven’t ended however are the bonds I created in Dublin, the experience I have gained from working and living there, and the memories I have from living abroad. I have seen tremendous growth in myself across the 8 weeks that I spent in Dublin. Personally, I have noticed how my confidence has grown. I was already confident heading into the program but being able to live in a foreign country when I did not previously know anyone else who was attendings was a big confidence booster. My success has shown me that I am able to do many things even navigate scenarios that are unfamiliar. Another personal growth I have noticed is my ability to connect with people, even ones that I have not been with for awhile has gotten stronger. For most of my life I have been slow to warm up to people, and they usually do not see my true self until I get comfortable with them. This is a contrast with how the program went this summer. I went in being very comfortable with my sense of self, which made it easy to connect with the other people on the program and make friends, despite not knowing anyone before leaving for Dublin. Academically I saw growth in myself by seeing how I was learning by experience rather than from a class or textbook. Experiencing living in a foreign place while traveling is a fantastic way to learn outside of a traditional setting. This experience allowed for me to gain knowledge outside the specific things that I have learned in school. Just talking to local people is learning in itself. Professionally I have grown in numerous ways. One way is my ability to ask questions. I used to be a very independently driven person, who was afraid to ask questions out of fear of being seen as lesser or not as smart or able. This summer, however, I was able to ask many questions of my supervisors. I would now rather make sure that I am doing the correct work than seem like I am independent and able to do work all by my lonesome. I also grew my writing skills this summer, as I was writing emails on behalf of Bernard Durkan, the TD that I worked for. This allowed me to practice writing in a form that I wasn’t as used to- the cordial email. A third professional skill that I saw grow this summer was my ability to prioritize tasks efficiently. There were a lot of things that I had to do for my internship this summer, and I was able to effectively budget my time in order to complete all my tasks in a timely manner.

The key takeaways I have from this program is how well I am able to adapt to situations. I am going to bring this back to Pitt by putting myself in more situations that I am not totally comfortable in, which will in turn make me more comfortable because I will be able to adapt to any situation I am faced with. Another takeaway I have is how well I am able to work with other people and listen to direction. I will apply this at Pitt in scenarios where I have to work with other people and will ensure that I am able to prioritize the goals of the group over my own personal goals. A third takeaway I have is how developed my leadership skills have gotten. While there wasn’t a ton of leadership opportunities when I was working my internship, there is plenty of chances to step up and lead when traveling and living abroad with friends. I learned that if I can just trust my skills then others will as well and I can be an effective leader. I will take this back to Pitt by showing leadership when possible.

This was an amazing summer and I will be focused on continuing to improve even as I return to school.