“Most glorious night! Thou wert not sent for slumber!” – Lord Byron

Day 04 – The prompt for this post is supposed to be “A picture of your favorite night.”  It is hard to think back over my life and pick one night, just one, that I am supposed to elevate above all others.  As I recall nights from my past, there are so many to choose from that I could easily label “my favorite” – late-night swimming adventures and bonfires with my fellow lifeguards:

endless laughs with friends throughout my collegiate career:

and countless others.  But if I do have to choose one night from my past that I could title my “favorite” I can think of one that while it was one of the best nights of my life, it was also one of the saddest.  It was my last night in Ireland – the last night out with all of my friends that I had grown so close to while I studied abroad.  My last 24 hours at UL (University of Limerick) is all a bit of a blur as well because everything was spiraling so fast and I was trying to take in every detail – to savor every single moment of the entire experience.  I did not want to let any of it go, and yet I knew that come 7am the next morning, I was going to be bound for Shannon Airport and eventually careening over the Atlantic, back to my life here in the states.  Now don’t get me wrong, I did miss my friends and family while I was away, but there was something so special and almost perfect about my time abroad that I was beyond reluctant to let it go.

But I had to, and while it may have been truly heartbreaking, my friends and I made it a night to remember.  So let me set the stage:  Finals had been done for about a week, so several of my Irish friends had already headed home for the summer.  My American friends that had not yet departed and I decided to spend that entire last day doing things that we had done the entire semester, but doing them one last time.  We went to Tesco just to get a few last bags of Midget Gems and Cadbury chocolate;  we then stopped by Rio’s to get one last bag of chips from the best chipper in Limerick; we decided to wander around downtown Limerick, taking in the sights of King John’s Castle and other tourist-y sites that we had evaded all semester; and we eventually walked along the River Shannon, back to the campus of UL and wandered through for one last time.  After taking in as much as we could, we returned to Kilmurry Village, our home away from home.  It was a beautiful day – no rain, barely any clouds.  I felt as if Ireland was giving me this day to take in everything that I had grown to love so much over the last four months, allowing me this much with almost no interruptions or hiccups.

And that night we decided to go to all of our favorite spots, starting first in my flat, house 48 where sessions had raged all semester.  And the best part was when our Irish friends that had gone home after finals returned to Limerick to give us a proper send-off.  The night was fantastic – dancing, singing, being surrounded by friends.  When we came home, everyone came to my room, helping me pack as we listened to our favorite songs and sang along until the taxi’s came at 6am.  It was a truly emotional night/early morning, and yet it has the potential to be my favorite night ever because of the craziness and excitement that was the perfect ending to a fascinating semester.  I have many photos from that night but as I look through them all, it is hard to only pick even a few to truly demonstrate the night in its entirety.  Therefore, I am going to allow this post to illustrate for itself how that night was simply the best.  My last night in Eire proved to be the culmination of everything I had enjoyed that semester.  The night proved to me once again just what a wonderful place the country is and that the people and places of that Isle will forever hold a special place in my heart.

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