Being awake at dawn has an extreme tendency to put even the most stressed people into a state of nirvana. Stepping out of the Dublin International Airport at dawn, I was surprised to find myself so calm and peaceful when I had been waiting for this day for years. I should have been worried for my first concert, or anticipating the activities for the day, or figuring out how to use euros, yet I wasn’t. I was in a trance that lasted the majority of that first day in Ireland, a trance that I never really broke out of until the next morning. However, during that reverie of a day is when my story began. That first Saturday evening in Ireland after being herded across the countryside in a sleepy daze to a completely lateral city called Cork, I found myself in a covert jewelry store. Wanting something emblematic of my heritage and time in Ireland I opted to buy a claddaugh ring. Of course at the time, I just thought it would be cool to have something so symbolic from the country my ancestors came from. However I later learned that such a simple piece of jewelry could mean so much more.
I have always found a profound interest in cities, no matter what corner of the world they're in. I fell in love with Dublin the moment the plane brushed down upon the runway. I just didn't realize it until we returned to Dublin after a few more days.

Being let off the bus to wander the streets of Cork, I felt like an infant taking its first steps. Every single thing I saw held my interest, from the most incredulous buildings to the smallest puddles. Why, I wonder, do we only appreciate the tiniest details of life when we are somewhere foreign to us? I had never noticed how the air feels until that day. I could feel the humidity, the wind blowing and how it hit off of me and how it swept everything around me. Why have I never noticed the wind at home?

The most symbolic moment to date was a few hours earlier, at the Rock of Cashel. It was a magnificently deteriorating castle, up on a tall hill overlooking the countryside. Looking out over the lush meadows, I walked out of the castle. As soon as I stepped through that doorway, I was blasted with a constant gust of wind. It was so powerful it threatened to blow me over time and time again. Looking out over the ledge I was taken with the extreme beauty of the simplest thing, a mere field of grass. The wind was all the emotions hitting me at once, the awe, appreciation, consciousness that I was really halfway across the world. This was like a delayed reaction from the moment I walked out of the airport, yet I was still in an absolute blur of disbelief.

Simply walking by a jewelry store down one of the side streets in Cork, my mom suggested we go inside. I caught sight of a wide array of claddaugh rings, and asked my mom if I could get one. She said of course, and I took it upon myself to scrounge through the display to find the most-- and then i saw it. I saw the lush meadows of Ireland and I saw a glimpse of Dublin from inside the airport and I saw the quaint streets of Cork and I felt the wind all around me. This one. The shop workers were happy to oblige since we had been engaged in small talk regarding where we were from and why we were there and how "we love Ireland". But from the moment I put that ring on, Ireland was a part of me.

Ireland was a part of me when I kissed the Blarney Stone. As I descended the stairway back down to the ground, I peered out over the walls of the castle. Again I was met with the view of the vast greenery I had become so accustomed to. I must have been subconsciously admiring my ring because someone walked over to me and was immediately enveloped in the same admiration I was.

"Did you get that ring in Ireland?" "Yep."

And those were all the words that were spoken, even though a greater conversation was taking place, that was unbeknownst to anyone else who walked by. I could tell you more about how I explored Ireland and how my ring was with me when I did amazing things. But you'll never feel those emotions; they were unexplainable by any words in the English language. To this day I still look at my ring and dream about the country I love so much. I'm not one for clichés, but I guess living one is a different story. They say home is where the heart is; I think I must have left my heart in Ireland.