It’s crazy to think that 2 weeks have already passed since I said my final goodbyes to all my friends in Ireland, and yet it has been. Time always seems to fly when you look back on the short term, but it just goes to show how important it is to take hold of the things going on in your life currently. For me, I just spent the past week at the beach in South Carolina for our neighborhood’s bi-annual beach trip. I was able to soak up some much-needed sun and catch up with everyone after an extended time away from my family. But the point of this post isn’t to talk about how ‘hard’ and ‘stressful’ my 2-month vacation and week-long beach trip was; it’s to give thanks to those who helped me out throughout my time in Ireland.

Over the past two months, I worked under St. John of God’s Intellectual disability services, where I learned how to manage and aid people with ID. Throughout my time there, I was exposed to individuals who had Down syndrome, autism, and dysphagia, where I learned how to confidently and safely manage their time in the G5 center. Part of my job at St. John of God’s was to ensure that each of the users had a meaningful day and work towards their discussed goals. In doing that, I was able to enhance my communication, time management, and patient-physician interaction skills that I will use throughout my time in the medical field. And it wouldn’t have happened without the teams of people that helped me make it to Ireland.

I would like to first thank Stephanie Spirk at the University of Pittsburgh for all her help in setting up and delivering the IIP program for each of the students who completed an international internship over the summer. Without her organization and planning, the program would not be as successful in empowering students to step outside of their comfort zone and gain experience in a field they are interested in as it is today. I would also like to thank all of the individuals working at EUSA for acquainting us with Irish culture and ensuring that we were safe and enjoying ourselves throughout our time in Ireland. I would specifically like to thank James Stone for working directly with St. John of God to secure a spot working in the field of intellectual disabilities for me. Finally, I would like to give a special thank you to all my coworkers who really made the internship worth it! Without them, I would have never grown to love the field of ID as much as I do today. So thank you; thank you for all the time you invested in me and thank you for welcoming me into the G5 family!  Without all these people, I would have never made it to Ireland or been able to accomplish all of the wonderful things I did.

My coworkers made all the difference for my time in Ireland; they allowed me to get the most out of working in the ID field as possible. Because of them, I was able to be a true student in Ireland. They allowed me to step into any scenario, except the dangerous ones, and help in every way possible. I learned how to create safe environments for dysphagia patients so they could enjoy their meals without running the risk of choking. I learned the importance of consistency for patients with ID and how to safely direct each user into the next step in their timetable while minimizing the potential for heightened poor behaviors. And most importantly, I learned to become friends with all of the users and become a part of their circle. Because that’s what matters in the field of medicine: connecting with the people you aim to help.

So all in all, I learned a lot, and I will be forever thankful for each person who helped me out along the way. Although I am happy to be home now and back into my routine of lounging around with my dogs in the morning before I leave for work, I will forever miss Ireland. I’ll miss the culture, the scenery, and most of all, the people I met along the way.