In the midst of the chaos of the last months of school work, college decisions and studying, I managed to flee the country and go on a school trip to Dublin, Ireland, over spring break. The trip was organized by two Inglemoor High English teachers, who have taken a group of Inglemoor students on the same trip to Dublin for eight consecutive years.

The main purpose of the trip was to explore Dublin in correlation with James Joyce’s collection of short stories “Dubliners,” which portrays the lives of the Irish middle class of the early 20th century. “Dubliners” is studied by junior International Baccalaureate English classes earlier in the school year.

There was obviously an educational objective to the trip; over our 10-day stay we visited several locations mentioned in the book, but the trip was also packed with sight-seeing, people-watching and, of course, shopping!

Our teachers would show us the city or outskirts in the mornings, and let us loose in the afternoon. This gave us ample opportunity to exercise our independence. We were able to explore the city on our own and undergo a great deal of self-exploration. We all had several “epiphanies” on the trip, as we all were discovering a new place — some of the students had never even left the country before — and, subsequently, exploring a part of ourselves. Everyone on the trip was discovering a new place, and this enabled us all to grow very close, despite how different everyone was; we were able to bond over a new experience that was so different from our suburban lives.

Before Dublin, I had travelled extensively throughout Europe to London and Switzerland over a span of six years. However I had never been on a trip with friends from school overseas before, and let me say that traveling with friends has a completely different dynamic than a family trip (not to say that family trips aren’t fun!).

One thing I initially found shocking was that members from our group would approach local Dubliners and ask them what they thought of the city and just make casual conversation. I had never done anything like that before, but I quickly learned that this gave us a much more authentic perspective of Dublin. For example, a teenager we rode with on a double-decker bus told us that making out is called “shifting,” and that fun is referred to as “craic” (pronounced “crack”), which is a Gaelic term. I now hope to use this method every time I travel.

This trip was the perfect getaway from my crazy life; I loved walking more than three miles a day, eating fish and chips on the stone steps of a medieval church and just getting to know new people in an environment so different from my home. This trip has created lasting memories, and I guess one of my own “epiphanies” from the trip is that I realized that I am willing to make sacrifices in my life to travel extensively for the rest of my life, even if it means I have to drive a beater car until I am 50.

Lately, as I spend my last days in high school, I have been thinking of what advice I should hand down to those in grades under me. If anything, I suggest to high schoolers out there, do whatever you can to get a chance to travel and see new places! In my experience, it has been my adventures and experienced abroad, or even in any new environment, that have helped me grow as a person and enrich my personality, and Dublin was no exception.

Elsa Watland is an Inglemoor High senior.