It's Always (Sometimes) Sunny in Galway

Reader, 

Every year, the sun comes out and I feel alive again.

It's as if the life seeps out of me when winter rolls around, and then my best self is thawed out when spring makes its debut. Suddenly, everything is better. I don't ache the way I did when I first got here. I don't miss it snowing in March. Instead, I'm sitting in the greenest grass I've ever seen writing a post about how happy I am in this 62 degree March. Since daylight savings time, the sun has been setting after 8 PM and it's like someone breathed life back into this place. It's always been lively here but the energy I've experienced here this month is like nothing I've ever seen before. 

I'm finally over the culture shock of being here and things that used to bother me seem normal now. The grocery store isn't scary anymore. I can understand thick accents (most of the time). I know my way around without using directions. I'm making friends that aren't American. I've adjusted to the fashion. I've started to become a 'regular' at several establishments. I live here now and this is one of my homes. I don't think there will ever be a day in my life where I don't consider it to be. I was welcomed here with wide, open arms and for that I am so, so grateful. 

I'm starting to mourn going back to America rather than mourning my absence there. I know it will certainly be another adjustment going back, but it's nothing I can't handle. I googled it. According to Webster University, "Reverse Culture Shock is a term used to describe the feelings (of surprise, disorientation, confusion, etc.) experienced when people return to their home country and find they do not fit in as they used to." Great! Just when I get adjusted, I'll have to be adjusted back into a place I thought I fit into. The reality is, though, that I'm not the same person I was when I touched down in Dublin for the first time. I'm better. 

Galway has made me a better, happier person. This has been one of the most jarring, life-changing, scary experiences I've ever had, but I'm leaving as my favorite version of myself. That's the best souvenir I could ever bring home with me.  

Luckily, the sun still shines at home, too. 

Ever yours, 

Gracie 

P.S. The photos attached were taken when I've felt exceptionally warmed by the same sun that shines here and at home.