I'm back in the U.S. !!! After a crazy day of traveling (I almost missed my flight back to Indianapolis because my flight from Ireland to Newark was delayed), I finally arrived (luggage and all ... thank goodness) safe and sound. After dinner with the fam, I went to bed pretty early, since I had been traveling for 12+ hours and had been up since midnight U.S. Eastern standard time (boo jet lag!).
While there were times when I was frustrated during my trip (Sabrena and I totally feel into the mid-trip lull where you get frustrated with the culture shock and what not), and while I was excited to be back with my family and friends and be free from traveling the country on a bus and living out of a suitcase, within less than 24 hours of being back, I was missing Ireland already (Especially our 11:00 tea time, Sabrena ... haha !) Overall, it was a fantastic experience and a trip of a lifetime, and while it seemed to drag on a times when I was there because I was removed from the rest of the world, I realize now that it went by too fast (though I think my family, friends, and coworkers here think it didn't go by fast enough).
In addition to all my observations I've written in early posts, I've now had a little time to reflect on my experiences and thought I'd share a few lessons I picked up along the way.
The first is this: compared to Ireland (and, seemingly, the rest of the world), the U.S., from my experience, lacks in terms of having a knowledge of and respect for our nation's history. Everyone that I talked to in Ireland, no matter how old or what profession, could easily explain the history of and the purpose behind why Ireland does certain things the way they do, and they had a pride for who they are and where they come from while being able to honestly admit where improvements need to be made without seeming shameful. I remember making a comment to Sabrena that if this trip would have been reversed, I couldn't have possibly shared all of the same information with Irish visitors to my institution, and I don't think that many could have. Perhaps because the U.S. has been such a melting pot, we haven't kept track of the history of America, but rather of the individuals places we came from. Perhaps the importance of our history just isn't stressed enough - we learn what we need to about it to pass a test in school and then it is forgotten about. In Ireland, history is integrated into the modern times every day. The strangest experience that I had in Ireland was that I was repeatedly thanked by Irish people for being American because "America has done so much for Ireland." I didn't know how to react to this. I personally didn't feel like I had done anything for Ireland, and I wasn't quite sure what my country as a whole had done for Ireland either. I learned during my time there was individual people meant by this, but perhaps if I had known prior to my trip what interactions between Ireland and the U.S. entailed, I would have been able to react to this seemingly undeserved gratitude much better.
This brings my to my second lesson, which is to focus on the positive and not the negative. I feel like I've been reminded about this throughout my life, but Ireland has reminded me of it yet again. I constantly complain about the media in America for broadcasting only the "bad" news without every celebrating any of the "good." As Americans, I feel that many of us are often quick to focus on what is going wrong - with government, with education, with money, etc. - when we could be focusing on what's going right and trying to figure out how to make other things better. I'm sure Ireland has just as many problems as we Americans think we do, but I rarely heard them articulated, and when I did, they weren't presented as problems. Instead, the Irish kept a positive outlook and talked about "areas that needed enhancing," thus putting a much positive spin on issues of concern. At the institutions, they were quick to point out what they were doing right, how far they had come, and credit those who had offered support and growth rather than complaining about lack of funding, slow processes of change, etc. This positivity made for a much more enjoyable experience there.
Thirdly, I've learned that when it comes to a lot of things, there's no dichotomous "good" and "bad;" there's just "different." While the U.S. and Irish higher education systems have many similarities, they also have vaste differences; but this doesn't make one system better than the other, it just makes them difference. The Irish institutions are excelling in ways that the U.S. hasn't, such as with access to education, support for mature students and for students with disabilities, and the involvement of the Students' Union in the governance of the institutions. The U.S. is also excelling in ways that Irish ones haven't, such as with the first-year and sophomore experiences, the student judicial process, and residential education. By studying both systems, one can pick and choose the best of both worlds to enhance their own; I myself have brought back several ideas that may enhance the programs that I work with.
Fourthly, my experience on my study abroad trip only reiterated that student affairs is a small profession, and introduced the idea that it's a small world now that we are globalized. Bill, a Ph.D. student on my trip, happens to know 2 of the professionals who I used to work with in orientation at Purdue. Suzanne now works professionally with a woman who was a graduate assistant for the orientation program while I was at Purdue. Stephanie and I had met each other in Atlanta this spring where we happened to be assigned to the same volunteer spot at ACPA and then ended up going to Ireland together. Wes went to undergrad with some of my friends from high school. Colleen, who now works for an institution in Ireland, knows almost all of the people I work with currently and has sorority sisters from my hometown. I met a woman in the airport on my way home to used to work for a company that a company I interned for in undergrad outsources too, and knew my former supervisors. It seemed as though every day the world got smaller and smaller. At the end of the trip I appreciate that Pam reminded us "to take care of each other," as we would all be growing professionally together and may need to rely on one another sometime. I also appreciate that Tony said that our group gave him "hope for the future of student affairs;" it was nice to know that someone believed in us.
I know that I will continue to reflect on my trip as time progresses, and never forget about it for the rest of time. I hope that I get the chance to walk the streets of Galway, bike the Aran Islands (ok ... maybe not), peer over the Cliffs of Moher, and visit the other sites of Ireland again one day (perhaps with some of my family or friends that have ties there), and maybe even explore other countries too (Pam and Tony ... you may see me in Scotland!). Till then, it's back to the "real world." (Jenn ... we'll be at Moe's soon !)
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