Ok, I know that by writing this I owe my dear Ireland a Happy St Paddy’s day post too but the thing is that yesterday I was invited to celebrate Canada day (eve) at the Canadian Embassy and that invitation not only took me there but also to Memories lane.
Once upon a time, back in 2017, Canada named me a Global Youth Leader. Well, I applied for it but I got it. It was a scholarship to do a 6 week programme for community leaders with a passion for social change in St Xavier University, at the Coady Institute in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. It was the first taste of an international university for me and… I couldn’t get enough. However, it was different to what I experienced in UCC a year later but I’ll get to that.
At St Xavier University and for this particular programme, all of us were from developing countries, therefore, the scholarship covered accommodation, food and course fees. I had classmates from Costa Rica, Pakistan, Kenya, Nepal, among others and we all had a background of having worked with development issues. I was impressed with each story and work that we were involved in. I for instance, was working in international cooperation for the Government of Ecuador; Adri, was working for coffee fair trade in Costa Rica; Kate was leading a girls empowerment initiative in Kenya and in the same country, Bonnie was working on circular economy with a focus on e-waste. We also had a princess with us but due to privacy and confidentiality reasons, I can’t say who, but trust me, she was a princess for real. In contrast to the princess, we also had a friend who was a Sirian refugee living under direct provision in Denmark. His story humbled me to a whole new level. I learned to be grateful for the privilege of being able to apply for visas even with all the paperwork, processes and waiting times that they imply.
But as I was saying, they were 6 very enjoyable weeks getting to know each other and learning from others. By others, I mean our mentors: Adam and Cynthia, from Australia and Egypt, respectively. They were so fun and creative. In fact, creative is the best description I can give them. The way they engaged with us was unique: games, presentations, drawings, stories… everything! I wish I had recorded all of this, but I was too busy having fun.
During that trip I realized I wanted more of that, and I really really wanted to study abroad. I had wanted that my whole life. In fact, I had applied for a few UK universities and had the admission letters, but I didn’t continue with the application or payments processes because I had to take care of my dad’s passing and pending issues, but Canada was a wake-up call. If I could leave those issues for 6 weeks, I could do it for a longer time to do my long-awaited master's degree so now was the time, it was time to make a plan and make it happen. On top of that, I was having a really bad time at work and wasn’t enjoying it. In fact, I wasn’t enjoying anything. I was living by inertia and it was only my puppy, George, that gave me the will to wake up and leave bed every day. Aside from that, I was simply empty.
So once the programme ended, I started to search for other options, a non-stop search. I had looked a few universities in Australia, New Zealand, Germany and still the UK but you know what? Ireland was just down there and I still don’t know why I hadn’t put that as a first option to begin with but once I looked into it, the masters syllabus, UCC service, the culture and what the city offered... that was it! UCC was the one. No second thoughts, sent the application and hoped for the best and along came the best and history is the rest.
So Happy Canada day to that great country that is part of my story of how I ended up in Ireland. I don’t usually bring it up in conversations because it’d be too long of a tale but it is part of my story and as such, here I celebrate it!
Oh, and btw, Nova Scotia has a loooot of things in common with Ireland, so as my friend says, maybe it was serendipity.
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