Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes: How Do You Measure A Year in the Life?

    One year ago today I took a final, rainy walk through Dublin City. I meandered down Grafton Street dropping all the spare change I had accumulated over the year into the cases of the buskers I grew to dearly love. I then walked through the touristy mayhem of Temple Bar.  I crossed the lovely ha'penny bridge and wandered along the River Liffey. I passed the James Joyce statue, and returned to my flat on Henry Street one last time to retrieve my luggage and board a plane back to the United States. After a wonderful, dreamy, hard-work-filled, life-altering year in Ireland I was finding it hard to day goodbye to this city, not to mention to the friends I made while living here. I did not want to go. But I was out of money, and I truly missed my friends and family as well the familiar California landscape. So I breathed in my last fresh Irish air, proceeded to the Dublin Airport, and tearfully boarded the Aer Lingus plane (fittingly called St. Aoife) that was to take me back to the US of A. I could not tear my eyes off the landscape until all I could see was the Atlantic out my window. Thus, I said farewell to the Land of Eire.

Last looks.

        I landed 6 hours later in New York City. I thought it a fitting way to return home: embarking upon another adventure. I met up with my dear friend, Jessica, who had recently transplanted herself to New York from Southern California. It was fabulous (once I got over the shock of the amazingly oppressive heat!!! After a year in Dublin with cool temperatures and the lovely rain, New York in September was a shock! 90 degrees F/32 C!) Wandering around this lively, historic city, seeing a fantastical play on Broadway, "Peter and the Starcatchers," and seeing the melting pot of culture, locals, tourists, and all sorts of interesting people was a wonderful way to spend my first days back in the United States.

Back in the U.S.A.

    The next journey was to fly from the still unfamiliar East Coast to land in California: home. It was amazing to me to discover that the flight from New York to California was almost as long as the flight from Dublin to New York! This is a large country I live in! I didn't really get that fact until I was in Europe which is so accessible and close, trips across Ireland by train only take a couple of hours. I landed in Los Angeles and it all seemed so oddly familiar, yet a year away is longer than I thought it would be, just long enough to adjust and become attuned to the Irish culture and accents and words and foods. It was strange to think things were strange. I flew the hour north to San Luis Obispo, and that is where I have been ever since.

   I have taken many trips to visit friends I had not seen for a year. To return to familiar places. I have attended many weddings, I was even the maid of honour in the nuptial of my dear friend Lisa.

The Wedding of my Lisa Ladybug, now Mrs. Jagers

     This year has been a great time of catching up with people. Of spending time with my mom, who I missed dearly while I was in Dublin. I have gotten a job at Barnes & Noble working with books, arranging them, bring books together with people, answering questions and really enjoying it. But this year seems so strange, to go from a great year of new experiences and significance and travels to a year of sitting still, waiting, working, and wondering what's next is a strange transition.

    I feel like a person who is split. I so desperately miss Europe and I want to return. But in what capacity? How would I support myself? And returning would just mean being in a different place and trying to answer these same questions. I miss the rain. I miss the lovely accents. I miss the slower way of life "don't worry about it, it'll be grand." I miss the pubs with live music all night every night. I miss the ease of travel with public transport and cheap flights all over. But while I was away I missed my community here. I missed many American foods and mostly Mexican food!

    So here I sit, wondering what is next, reflecting on the last year of my life. I have been creating a lot of art as a way of processing. I have printed thousands of pictures and arranged them in books documenting my time abroad. But I refuse to let them tell the whole story of my adventures in travels. I want to travel this country. I want to see so much more of the world that I have not yet seen. I am just wondering what the wisest plan of action for this is.

   A year goes by so fast. There have been many joyous reunions and weddings and adventures in this last year back in California. I do not want to miss the here and now, but I am so looking forward to the next adventure, whatever that may be. But until then I am enjoying connection through correspondence, so please, keep writing to me dear friends!