I know everyone probably says this at this point in their internship, and I really don’t have a more creative way to put it, but it’s truly hard to believe that I have been in Dublin, Ireland, learning, working, and exploring their culture for an entire month now. So, for a bit of an update on my time in Ireland. Over the past week, I was finally able to explore St Patrick’s Cathedral, which, by the way, might have been one of the coolest cathedrals I have ever been in. I was able to attend the URC rugby final between Leinster and Bulls Recap to see the Irish team Leinster defend their title in an energetic scrum-filled game of rugby. Honestly, after going to the championship game, I still prefer a good game of American football to a game of rugby. It might just be my bias from growing up in the States, or me not having the slightest idea of the rugby rules, but nothing beats walking into the Steelers stadium and listening to the crowd in Hines Field. Lastly, I attended my first-ever international concert, where I was able to be one of 41,000 fans cheering and listening to Olivia Dean play, quite possibly, the best performance I have ever heard in my entire life.
There has definitely been oodles of fun going on outside of my internship to say the least, but I have also been having so much fun in my internship as well. Although it is definitely not the same type of fun as seeing Olivia Dean, it is still fun, to say the least. One of the coolest things I have come to understand and love in the Irish culture is the “craic”. Now, at first, this might seem a little weird and off-putting to say from an American’s point of view, but in Ireland, having the craic means to have the best time possible. The Irish people treat this not as a once-a-week type of thing but as a challenge for them to have the best time in every possible moment of the day. As someone who is new to working full 40-hour weeks and living like an adult, which I still don’t plan to do anytime soon, having a good time at work seemed downright impossible. But for the Irish, it is more of a necessity, especially in the field of Intellectual disabilities, than an opportunity.
Now, having the craic, for some reason, is something that I have had a hard time adjusting to. I don’t think it’s because I don’t want to have a great time when working, but I think it has to do with the American culture around the word work. For us, work is not typically something that is easy or fun to do; we do it because we must, or because we want to provide for those around us. But in Ireland, and in ID services, I have started to notice that work is something that they get to do. Working in the field of ID, you spend every day taking care of and teaching people who have spent their whole lives being treated differently. Lots of the time, the whole goal of our job is to make them feel normal, and one of the biggest pipelines to a “normal life” is having a job. I didn’t realize this until I stepped into my first work experience with one of the guys at G5. Just simply walking into their job. Organizing tea and coffee for people there, and leaving, gave her the biggest smile I had ever seen on one of the users since I started my internship there. The whole experience left me baffled, confused, and happy all at the same time. To give you some perspective, she had on her face the kind of smile that most people only show once a year, a pure, genuine smile. It made me wonder, it made me curious about all the things that I take for granted in my life, like work, that could give others overwhelming joy. And that’s when I realized it; in order to enjoy your life, as the Irish do, you have to make it your goal to be as happy as possible, no matter what is going on in your life. One of the most common sayings the Irish have is “if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry”, and the more and more time I spend here, the more I realize the truth in it.