Keep Dreaming

            It’s my last week of work and my last week in Dublin. Eight weeks has never gone by so fast. As I remember the whole reason I’m here in the first place, the reason I’ve been writing these blogs, and that “studying” abroad usually comes with a course number and syllabus, it’s hard to believe all this amounts for a grade. MC495: International Business and Cultural Experience… Go work in Dublin, live amongst the locals, learn about their culture, then come back and write a paper about it.

As I’m reflecting on the time I’ve spent here this summer, it’s almost impossible to account everything that’s happened even looking back through my previous blog posts. How can I put eight weeks on to paper? Yes I’ve learned invaluable experience, but doing what? Yes I’ve learned life lessons, but what was I taught? Yes I’ve made life-long friends, but who will I still be friends with at the end of my life?

No words can fully explain the experience I had this summer. I enrolled in MC495 to fulfill a credit and earn a grade, but in reality I earned so much more than that. Have you ever woken up from a dream and thought to yourself “wow that was such a great dream!” only to not be able to remember what happened an hour later? I’ve been living in a fantasy world this summer, one big dream that I never would’ve imagined. When I go home people will ask, “what was your favorite part?” I won’t be able to give them an answer because it’s all been wonderful and it all runs together. And whatever anecdotes or random stories I will remember will only be a small contribution to the entire summer story, unable to explain the magnitude of the experience as a whole.

Maybe that’s the case when we can’t remember a good dream – we wake up when it’s over and can’t pinpoint every specific part, but just know all of it was great. And you know the feeling when you’re subconscious in the middle of a great dream and don’t want to wake up? That’s why even though my program in Dublin is over on Thursday, I just booked a flight to Berlin on Friday. As if I were hitting snooze on my alarm, Becca and I are staying to travel for another two weeks…I’m just not quite ready for this summer to be over.