A Wayward Soul

I have always wanted to travel from an early age. The combination of having moved frequently as a child, visiting my father’s relatives on the east coast, and hearing many stories about travels from various members of my family gave me the travel bug. I remember my mom talking about the years she lived in Italy, or the coins my father and stepdad would bring home for me from business meetings. I looked into becoming an international student right out of high school but it was too expensive.

“My grandfather whom I was very close with as a child was 100% Irish and Scottish and after he died I decided to stop pushing off visiting the country and do it now.”

University of the Pacific’s (UOP) only program in Ireland was through USAC at University College Cork, so my boyfriend and I went there. Richard jokes that he gets to choose our next destination, but we both had an amazing experience. Out of the nearly 2,000 visiting students, we were the only ones traveling as a couple and hearing about how much everyone else missed their significant others made us doubly glad for our opportunity.

The summer before I transferred to UOP I compiled and self-published a different poetry book so I already knew before we left for Ireland that I wanted to do another book of poetry and photographs from our travels. I am always writing poetry but out of the ones I was writing I was sorting them into the book right away and thinking about which were my favorite photographs out of the thousands that I took.

“I usually never think of favorites in my poetry, but I would have to say Aisling/Dream because the challenge of learning enough Irish to write a poem in the language really motivated me all semester.”

Many of my friends have agreed that Downcast is in their top three. Since I planned the making of this book and writing poetry is such a daily part of my life that making it didn’t seem very exciting to me. The feedback that I have been getting on my book reaffirms that this is what I want to do.

This was my third trip abroad and I have now been to more countries than states! I recommend travel both at home and abroad for everyone and I think it should be mandatory to get your passport as a teenager just so you have it and are ready to travel at any opportunity. I think it brings out the rawness of your soul, new places, new experiences, you learn so much about yourself, you are in a new place where no one knows you or has any preconceived notions about who you are so you are free to try new things.