As the saying goes all good things must come to an end. We are now 2 days from returning home. Today was my last day at placement. It was sad to say good-bye. I feel that within this last week the relationships I had been working on developing finally formed. I'm truly going to miss the ladies (service users) there and the bonds that were made.

 

As I look back over the trip I would say that first and foremost May 26th in Dublin was my favorite day. Naturally that is  because I celebrated my 32nd birthday there. I never would have imagined celebrating my birthday in another country. My highlights would be the beautiful train ride there. I also enjoyed walking down Grafton Street shopping and watching the street performers. Then later that evening hanging out in Temple Bar and ringing in my actual birthday at midnight dancing and having fun at Thunder Road.

 

My next favorite trip/ experience was climbing Mt. Croagh Patrick. This was no easy feat and I was able to safely accomplish it. Initially I was not even sure if I wanted to climb it to the top. I had the attitude of “we’ll see what happens.” And as it turned out I went all the way. During this hike there was a strong sense of comradery among the group. We were supportive of each other and worked together to make sure we made it up the mountain. There came a point in which I became tired and wanted to give up (we had about another 20 minutes to go), but was given encouragement by the group and strangers to keep going. On the day we climbed it was a thick fog/ mist on the mountain closer to the top. At one point it started to rain or else we walked into the thick mist, which made me cold and wet, but I kept going. With each corner we turned I hoped we were at the top, but sadly realized we had ways to go. When it was clear enough to see up the road ahead of you the people looked so tiny because of how far away they were from where we were. All the perseverance paid off in the end. I now have an even stronger sense of being able to accomplish whatever I put my mind to.