As the Pittsburgh portion of our program starts winding down, I’ve been thinking a lot about everything that’s happened so far. It’s wild how fast time moves when you mix academics, professional development, and whatever chaos my roommates and I get ourselves into. Looking back, it doesn’t feel like a typical program. It feels like a blur of learning, exploring, and me slowly becoming a slightly more functional adult.

Professionally, I’ve grown way more than I expected. I came in thinking consulting was mostly about research and analysis, but it turned out to be way more human than I imagined. Somewhere between neighborhood scrambles, EIR visits, and listening to people who actually understand community development, I realized consulting is mostly about listening. You have to hear people’s stories, learn what they care about, and let them guide the solutions.

From a ersonal standpoint is where the real chaos happened. I got my ears pierced on a random Sunday. I played vpolleyball on the Cathedral lawn so so much that I came home looking like I lost a fight with a bear. I joined pickup games with strangers, wandered into Picklesburgh, explored the city at night, ate way too many late‑night meals, and did too many sidequests to count. We thrifted in Shadyside, met Daryll the clarinet player who casually told us he met Obama twice, went to Topgolf, and somehow still managed to show up to class every morning pretending we weren’t exhausted. Pittsburgh surprised me. It felt alive in a way that reminded me of LA, just with fewer palm trees.

Now that Ireland is right around the corner, everything feels both surreal and exciting. Carrigart has only existed in my head as a list of businesses, interviews, and Google Maps images. Soon it’s going to be real people, real conversations, and real work. I’m excited to finally see the town we’ve been talking about nonstop, meet the community members, and figure out how all our ideas translate into actual solutions. Mostly, though, I’m excited to grow even more and to take everything Pittsburgh taught me and use it somewhere completely new.