By Rachel Royster | Editor-in-Chief
After a year of cramming French into my brain and putting away money earned from odd jobs, I had the full intention of spending my summer in Paris with a French family to expand my knowledge of the language and culture of a country I’ve loved from a young age.
But cue the record scratch, because I missed the deadline, and Paris slipped right through my fingers. Normally, I’m a very punctual and organized person, so missing the deadline for Baylor in Paris was a curveball straight out of left field for me.
The next day, I was talking to a peer about it in Professor Matthew Brammer’s class. The next thing I knew, I was signed up for a very different trip across the pond. This time: Ireland. Although I shed a few tears before switching gears to prepare for the Irish study abroad program, I couldn’t be more grateful that things happened the way they did.
I didn’t get the French practice I thought I would, but this summer, I grew close to 10 strangers on foreign soil by putting on PowerPoint nights, laughing together on the lawn of St. Stephen’s Green, playing plenty of card games, singing karaoke, exploring coastal towns and building the publication that’s in your hands right now.
In the five weeks we’ve spent in Ireland, I grew to appreciate every one of the students here. They have supported me in ways I never expected to need, and they always met my requests with enthusiasm, patience and a will to learn.
So as you flip through these pages commemorating our time on the Emerald Isle, I hope you see the work of 11 students who came together with different experiences and backgrounds to create a publication dedicated to each other and future Baylor in Ireland students.
