My final week in Dublin was so bittersweet! On one hand, I was feeling excited to go back home and see all of my friends, but on the other hand, I couldn’t imagine leaving all of the new friends I made in Dublin, and having this summer experience draw to an end.
On Monday and Tuesday, I worked on revising my assigned RTÉ piece for my internship. My supervisor left notes for me on Friday, so I worked through all of her revisions. This meant adding some new content, cleaning up my sentences, and reformatting the article to fit the typical look for RTÉ. I felt good about the revisions I submitted and confident that I had met my supervisor’s expectations. In other words, I felt that I had appropriately met my supervisor’s definition of professional “success”. At my internship, being successful is very straightforward; meet deadlines, submit good quality work, and show enthusiasm for the task at hand. I found that, contrary to positions I have had at home, I never had to question whether or not I was doing enough to be successful in my position. From my experiences working in the United States, being successful means exceeding expectations—i.e., demonstrating creativity, meeting deadlines early, showing advanced content knowledge, and taking the initiative to work ahead on assignments. Throughout my internship, I held myself to the same expectations that I am used to from my experiences at home, and in doing that, I was also met with an abundance of gratitude and praise. It was honestly such a rewarding experience to know that being successful doesn’t need to equate to overworking yourself. I noticed that in Ireland, the boundary between work life and personal life is much more explicit. That is a significant element that contributes to how success is defined in the workplace.
After work on Tuesday, my roommates and I went to CN Dumplings for our final dinner. It is heartbreaking to imagine that I will never eat that food again. Genuinely nothing compares. After dinner, we walked around St. Stephen’s Green for a little bit and then called it a night.
On Wednesday, I went in person to Dublin City University for my internship. I met with my supervisor and one of her colleagues to discuss the RTÉ article I had completed. They were both very pleased with the final piece, and now begins the process of working toward publication! It’s sad that I won’t get to be very involved from this point forward, but they said they will keep me updated with any progress they make. They also said that upon publication, there is a chance I could be listed as first author, which would be super exciting! I had such a nice afternoon meeting with my supervisor in person, and found myself feeling so grateful for how much I have learned from her, and just generally for the incredibly positive internship experience that she gave me. After our meeting, we met up with her other intern, another EUSA student, and we had a goodbye coffee. It was the perfect way to close out this internship experience.
After work on Wednesday, Kendall and I went back to the Craic Den Comedy Club! This has been one of my favorite discoveries in Dublin, and the show was just as good, if not funnier, this night than last week. After the comedy club, Kendall and I met up with our roommates and we got Bambino for the last time! Bambino is our favorite pizza place in Ireland. It is absolutely delicious. When I was inside waiting for my pizza, a few guys came in and were ordering their food and chatting with the worker in Irish. I was eavesdropping on their conversation and then had this moment of, oh my God, I can understand everything they’re saying, this is awesome!
On Thursday, I walked around the city to some of my favorite spots, and then spent my day in St. Stephen’s Green. I finished writing a few postcards to send back to friends at home, and just enjoyed the nice weather. That night, I met up with my roommates, and we had our last hurrah in Dublin!
On Friday, I got a traditional Irish breakfast, which was one of the last things I wanted to do before leaving. It really hit the spot. Then, Kendall and I walked around the city for a while, and I did some last-minute shopping.
That wraps up my last week abroad! Saturday morning, Kendall and I were up and at it for our very long travel day back to Pittsburgh.
Slán Baile Átha Cliath, go raibh maith agat le haghaidh gach rud.