Side Quest Saturdays

It's the little stops and side quests that bring about the greatest sense of adventure for me. During the West trip, our bus stopped at Inch Beach and the Ladies' View, which were both my favorite stops of the day. Even the stop at the ancient burial site in Connacht, with the rocky landscape, was a highlight. I love the little adventures that have taken me off the beaten path and into the wonders of place. 

Since having returned to Dungarvan, I've tried to add these piecemeal adventures into everyday life, like when I went along to Cork even though I didn't get a tattoo. Or walking to the end of the stone wall by the Park Hotel, and stumbling upon a footbridge bridge on the other end of the Colligan river. Wandering brings about a joy that isn't found in the mundane. 

This past Saturday, when a group and I went to Cork, I got to spend time feeling out of place and lost in a city. Even though it was stressful and we missed one, and almost two, buses home it was so fun! Feelings of wandering or being lost help me to see in the present, when I'm not entrenched in the doldrums of routine. I've learned that a walk, best without a set destination, helps me to feel this even while in town. 

These little stops also create a more honest, and less touristy, experience of place and people. I've loved stopping at the cheese and fudge place (I honestly don't know the name) and walking to the Cove on the Abbeyside strand at low tide. Most of all, I've enjoyed the lessened stress of time and work. 

There will likely be no other uninterrupted chunk of time like now to travel and enjoy until I change from a retail schedule, which is a bit of a sad thought. Overall, I'm glad that I am studying abroad. It's helping me to see how much of life slips by in the duties and responsibilities, and how little side quests can help me to feel alive again. 

While travelling, the most important thing I've learned is to give myself permission to experience everything and have fun. A lot of the time, I resign to apathy and wait for something to be over, so I can go on to the next responsible thing (going from
classes, to a job, to home, and then to a second job). Though this attitude helped me to get through long days of work and school, I'm learning that I can enjoy the little bits of life if I frame them as an adventure or unexpected. 

So while I'm abroad and don't often have plans for the weekends, I'm declaring Saturdays as "Side Quest Saturdays," where I will go explore a new place, hike, or intentionally try something out of my comfort zone. It's exciting because it's new, but it will also help me grow. Cheers to a new day! 

These new days also reminds me of Yeats' poem "When You Are Old," where he describes an old person reading a book of times, or their memories. Though Yeats casts this person as sad, I also think there is a glimmer of pride in having once lived, loved, and experienced the everyday. 

"...And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;...And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars." 

These are my favorite lines because they are all about the evasion of memory, of life, and even of the present moment. As the person looks into the past, they remember and possibly misremember the days, but fail to live out the one they are experiencing now. Their being "full of sleep" is both about being old, tired, and keenly aware of time. 

I love literature that works with time and age in new ways. This time abroad, with its expansion and abstraction of time in hours and days, is a wonderful experience of suspension of everyday life and thought.