Comings and Goings: An Irish Exchange

"How can you know yourself at twenty?"

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That's a fair question I'm beginning to address, two years into college at the University of Texas. I've developed a grooved routine there, and it's one I've done well. Well enough to make me think I might have myself, and maybe my life, figured out.

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At least, that's what I try to tell myself. But the truth is, I haven't done enough to evaluate myself, or my life, with any certainty. Two decades isn't all I need. A childhood of relocating through Connecticut, Arizona, and Texas has given me something, but not all. Learning Spanish as a second language has given me something, but not all. A fall semester in a little neighborhood south of Dublin will give me something, but not all. I'm doing what I can to learn curiosity; this will only be another step.

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If this all sounds like another blog from another American hoping to find himself in a foreign country, don't worry. I'm just trying to learn how to have a little more fun, to wonder a bit more. I'm not here to connect metaphysically with the sky or the wind or the mysterious place under my sternum. Learning who you are and what you like isn't as deep as we like to think. If anything, it might be basic.

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I'd like whatever I write here to be honest, narrative, and maybe a little funny. The less seriously I take myself, the better. I react physically to soulful oversharing on the Internet; gag reflex followed by scarlet hives, like a deathly allergy with a side of nausea. All this to promise that the site won't be my journal.

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Though to be sure, I want to put down what it's like to live this Irish life for a few months. Those I care about should be able to know my trip, and maybe the records will insure that these experiences become ingrained. Dublin as a blessing isn't lost on me. This isn't a chance, whether for learning, travel, growth, or fun, that I'll get again.