Service Projects

This semester, we had to perform services projects with some people in the community of Spiddal in order to help strengthen ties in the town. I was lucky enough to spend some time talking with Jon Paul who runs the Park Lodge Hotel and Cabins, where we are staying.

What we did for JP was help him move around tables and chairs for the main event room in the Hotel, generally for banquets, parties and weddings. We usually spent around an hour moving things around and covering chairs. While the work was a little fun, the real experience came in talking to Jon Paul about all of his different experiences.

JP was a little hard for me to understand at first, admittedly, because of his thicker Irish accent, but once I got to the point where I knew what he was getting at whenever he talked, we had some really great conversations. The most memorable thing we had talked about was right after we had our spring break, and we talked about where all JP had traveled. Little known to myself at the time, Jon Paul is the most traveled person I have ever met. Hearing him talk about traveling to Japan and South Africa like it was nothing kind of rocked my world, and makes me a little envious of him honestly.

Looking back to my conversations of JP, it makes me realize just how small the world can be, and just how many connections people can make. Hearing about how Jon Paul would just make a call and make stuff happen all around Ireland makes me think a lot about the scenes from The Grand Budapest Hotel, where he makes calls all over the world to make just one thing happen. Jon Paul seems to be a man who knows exactly what he wants in life, and does not live beyond the means to achieve that. It does not seem to be about money to him, but the experiences. He seems to live just within the means to be comfortable, and I find that very respectable.

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As a note, this is my last graded blog. I may write more after this, but I am still undecided. I may start a new blog about all of my experiences and thought in the world, but that is also yet to remain undecided. Looking back at the trip, I am very glad to have met the people I have, had the conversations I did, and got the opportunities that presented themselves to me. It's weird to think that in less than two weeks I will be back in the States, something that should but won't be familiar to me.