And finally, we meet.
It’s a strange experience, meeting people for the first time and yet feeling like you’ve known them for years. I suppose it speaks to our group’s compatibility, and our ability to get to know each over Zoom calls and text messages. But it’s still astonishing, and so profound that something as simple as spending time with new friends can be such an incredibly joyous occasion.
This past week, inter-county travel was allowed for the first time since we all arrived here in late autumn. On Wednesday, my housemates and I boarded the Wexford Bus and spent the day up in Dublin. There were so many surreal moments throughout the day that kicked off all of these emotions that are hard to capture in words. I got to hug people, ones that I haven’t been living with for the past seven months (my housemates give great hugs, but it was different). A feeling of being home, so strong that I was in tears, washed over me as I heard the mass parts of the Mass for Our Lady being sung at the Newman Centre. I hadn’t heard or sang them since March of 2020, at my last Folk Choir mass at Notre Dame’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart, before Covid hit. I had a mix of déjà-vu and nostalgia as I walked through St. Stephen’s Green and the streets of Dublin for the first time since 2018. But it was all good; the familiarity, the excitement.
And from Thursday to Saturday, we welcomed the Dublin House here in Wexford. A full community dinner, game night, and just being able to chat with each other was so joyful. We managed to fill our Friday with nearly everything Co. Wexford has to offer, from our own private community mass at St. Peter’s Church in Duncormick, to a stroll at Tintern Abbey, an eventful hike along the cliffs at Hook Head, and a lively dinner from Mary Barry’s chipper. Saturday was a take-it-easy sort of day, dodging rain showers on our stroll through Wexford town before we said goodbye. I found myself hit by another wave of emotion as we watched the taxi leave the church parking lot, the kind of sadness that comes when I say goodbye to good friends.
On Saturday night, sitting around our kitchen table, one of us looked at the calendar and remarked on how quickly the month of May is passing. It’s unfortunate that we are just now getting the chance to explore the country with only a few weeks left in our year of service here. But until recently, we thought that we wouldn’t be able to meet up at all this year, or get to travel around the country. So I’ll take our mad dash of visiting and exploring and filling up every moment we have left here with beautiful memories. Because it’s hopeful. And after all this time, hope is exactly what we need.
