These past few days have been some of the greatest of my life. A deep dive into Irish culture, religion, and politics that has offered a glimpse of history I only knew of briefly. We flew into Dublin, Ireland in the early morning on Monday, where we then hopped on a bus and drove to Belfast, Northern Ireland. We spent roughly 2-3 hours with the wonderful children at the Holy Trinity Youth Center getting to answer all their questions about us and ask our own questions about them. Later that day, we took a tour of the Peace Walls in Belfast. A large part of The Troubles happened in Belfast, and so these walls were created to split the two warring groups, although many believe that the walls do more division and thereby venture further from peace. Tuesday rolled around and our first stop was the Ulster Museum, where another fixture of The Troubles was displayed. It had the history of Ireland shortly before The Troubles, before Ireland split into two separate nations, the motivations and actions of those during The Troubles, and the peace making hopes after The Troubles. I had never heard of this part of Irish history before, and it was very unexpected because I had never even heard a semblance of a conflict. The hardest part of any history is being able to see the people behind the events. Oftentimes history undervalues the importance of human action, and uses wording that downplays the true impact trauma has on communities and the lived experience of war. The museum did an amazing job on focusing on the people and their stories and how their lives have been affected even in the present. One standout piece of the exhibition was a poem written by a young girl in The Troubles who spoke about the visit with her brother in prison, and how the guards seemed so domineering and scary to her, when she truly only wished to see her brother. She was young enough to understand the violence, but not old enough to fully comprehend the effect The Troubles had on her life. After the museum, we returned to the Youth Center for another few hours of interactions with the children. They were very happy to see us again, and many even branched out and spent time with new people! Then, we visited Carrickfergus Castle, dating back to 1177. One unique aspect of the castle was its stability. The care put into it allowed it to remain standing as an important part of Irish history, while some other castles are now only ruins and their stories can only be imagined. While the first two days in Northern Ireland were jet-lagged and long, so much was experienced that every minute changed my outlook on life, of which I am very grateful for.