Looking back on the days through our blog has made me nostalgic of it all, and just grateful for everything I got to experience within this two-week course. I am a Health Science Major, and Nutrition minor, so coming into this course I only knew from the pre assignments for what to expect, and I learned so much more than I thought I would. In the health industry, you will come across so many hardships and choices that will need to be made on a daily. These choices will affect our lives for the better or worse. Coming out of this course, I understand so much more when it comes to why decisions are made from the communications aspect but also looking into a person more deeply rather than their outside “appearance” coming from the peace and justice side. I want to be an occupational therapist and help people learn to walk again coming out of a traumatic event. From this course, I realize how much depth there is to the word trauma, and how over generations, trauma can still be going on. It is imperative to be able to work together with each other well and learn about one another to be able to come together and strive forward in this evolving world.
From the day-to-day perspective, it has been so rewarding being able to see new sights like Shank hill and the Falls roads, the peace walls, Corry Meela, and Giants Causeway. Looking at murals and realizing how their reality is different from ours in the United States and just knowing that their conflict is still going on in some ways, just not violent. One moment that changed my mind set a lot on war was the game we played in Corry Meela. I have never been so invested in a game, and how my colleagues were talking about it after, it made them think differently as well. It made my colleagues, and I realize that war is never the answer, and it does not solve anything. Communication is a huge factor that can cause so many slip ups, and quick decision making from a lack of knowledge, that causes wars like the troubles to happen. The game showed me that communication is incredibly hard to do, and in the middle of a war, trying to call a ceasefire must be on another level of difficulty.
While there were so many highlights to this trip, there were also some challenges that I came across during it. Our days were long, and our brains were on constantly, making it difficult sometimes to be able to focus on the minute details that may have missed during important conversations with the people of Ireland. Coming from a completely different major, it was hard to switch my mindset of anatomy, physiology, and nutrition, to the mindset of war and communication. Once we had a few conversations with some of the people, and specifically the panel with Lee Lavis in it, I was hooked on learning about his story, and the many hardships he came across in his life of being a British soldier. These conversations of learning, and talking made the tiredness, and overfilled brain information worth it because of all the lessons I was able to take away from it.
Coming into college, I knew I wanted to be a health science major, but I had to work incredibly hard to be able to stay within the major because science does not come easy to me, so I was surprised that I could not switch my brain as easily as I thought to a subject different from the past years. The first couple of days, like I mentioned, were difficult, but after getting some much-needed background information, and lots of repetition of the history of Ireland, it became a lot easier to learn more.
In conclusion, I loved taking this course because it opened my eyes to a world outside of the United States and showed me that a post conflict world is achievable. Ireland is a beautiful country that I loved exploring with my many new friends that helped push me learn even more. I truly enjoyed my experience during the 2 weeks that this course took place, and I am grateful for everything that I was able to take away from it!
Picture taken by Claire Santo: Corry Meela