When I was 15 years old and a sophomore in high school, I approached my parents with a PowerPoint presentation that I had made proposing the idea that I should study abroad. Of course, I anticipated the worst, but knowing my parents, if I came prepared and had every possible question that they could ask answered, they would hear me out. And hear me out they did. A short six months later, I found myself, now 16, on a flight to Ireland to have the experience of a lifetime.
People often ask me why I chose to study abroad so young. For a long time, I didn't have an answer for these people. My PowerPoint presentation never really included why I wanted to go abroad, but instead answered questions about safety and the statistical chances that I would develop a drinking problem in my mother's homeland. Now, I think I can answer this question. At 16, I didn't appreciate the opportunity that had been presented to me. I found myself alone in a country that was unfamiliar, which to most, would sound like a nightmare, but to me, was an absolute dream.
I love my family, and while I was away, I often found myself missing them, but for once in my life, I felt as if I was my own person. Suddenly, I was no longer influenced by my parents, my brothers, or the people that I had grown up with. At home, I knew what was expected of me, but abroad, I could be whoever I wanted to be. Suddenly, my junior varsity basketball skills made me the "Michael Jordan" of Castlebar, and the way I said "candle" made me the most sought out person in all of town. To the people of Castlebar, a small farming town in the heart of County Mayo, I was a big city girl who somehow found myself amongst the cows and pub crawls.
Ireland offered me exactly what I needed. In America, life is so fast-paced. Teenagers are taking on adult-like stresses, and the average teen is drowning in homework, peer-pressure, and societal expectations that are virtually impossible to live up to. At 15, I found myself crying in my bedroom because I felt as though I just couldn't handle the pressures that were being thrown at me on a daily basis. While America continues to put an overwhelming strain on its young people, it was refreshing to see that other countries don't live this way. In Ireland, homework is important, peer-pressures are still existent, and there are certain societal expectations that Irish teens are forced to live up to, but the pace at which these stresses are thrown at them is much slower. I went from feeling like I was batting in the World Series of a Major League baseball game and there was an 0-2 count to a whiffle ball game in the backyard on a Sunday afternoon. Life was quieter, calmer, slower, and sweeter. Americans all too often like to revert back to the quote "Stop and smell the roses." Well, I hate to break it to the rest of my brothers and sisters who were born and bred in the States, but our roses died a long time ago.
Finally, I found myself in a place that, to me, seemed stress free. Spending time with family and friends was a focal point, and catching up over a pint at the local pub, or a Coke in my case (yes, Mom and Dad, it was a Coke), was more important than studying for the SAT four years in advance. Ireland taught me how to actually live my life, instead of going through the motions and subsequently not living up to society's latest absurd expectation. I found myself enjoying school, where I actually felt as though I wanted to learn and better myself, rather than resenting my teachers and feeling as though I'm going to fail my next test and amount to nothing. I found myself appreciating handball practice (yeah, I still don't really know what handball is), rather than begrudgingly making my way to lacrosse practice where the pressures of an athletic scholarship haunted my teammates and I more than endless sprints. I found myself appreciating my friends and having productive, encouraging conversations, rather than sitting at home with homegrown buds venting about school, sports, and everything in between. And, I found myself appreciating my family, even though they were thousands of miles away from me.
Although I was young, I learned how to live my life at 16. I learned the importance of friends, family, and having a reasonable amount of ambition. I learned that realistic goals are attainable, but they have to be just that, realistic. I learned that life continues to go on if you fail that test, if you don't get that scholarship, and wasting time venting about the stresses you can control only takes away from the simple joys of life. Life is far too short to concern yourself with things that aren't of importance. At the end of the day, if we all lived our lives as if we were living in that quaint, farming town in the valleys of Ireland, we'd all be a bit better off. So, America, our roses may have been drowned by unnecessary societal pressures, but I know of some daisies that smell damn good.
