My apologies for not posting for a while but brace yourself for my longest post yet.
Time has been flying by and I cannot believe that I leave on Friday. For my last weekend I had the best one yet for sure. After a really long week at St Lucy’s I was more than happy to meet Alice and her boyfriend’s coworkers at a really cool restaurant in Sydney’s CBD Friday night! On Saturday, me and all of the Randall gals went to Symbio Wildlife Center. I really felt like one of the sisters and I’ve always wanted older sisters so it was so nice they were all able to come! We saw so many animals both native to Australia and not, we even saw a baby Joey in its moms pouch. We hung with the Joey for quite some time and the kids hated us :) after a really great day, my dad brought Alice & I tickets to see West Side Story at the Sydney Opera House! Before the show we got pizza at the opera bar and had magnificent views and excellent pizza (surprisingly). The show was amazing, very depressing but amazing. As the end of this fellowship is near I’m becoming really sad to leave the Randal’s I’m so comfortable and have so quickly become a member of their family it’s crazy. They are talking me to an Italian restaurant tomorrow for my goodbye dinner and I’m so excited. I also went to Manly beach by myself on Sunday and had a wonderful day!!
My time at St Lucy’s has been so incredible and it’s really sad to begin to say goodbyes. I truly hate goodbyes and am a huge fan of the Irish goodbye when it comes to long goodbyes. There’s been times that have honestly been very challenging and I’ve missed home but I’m not quite ready to leave St Lucy’s. I want to be here to see how the students grow and develop and see what amazing things they can and will accomplish. It’s a very weird feeling for me right now. I hate the unknown and there’s so much unknown coming this year. I want to make sure that’s there’s adequate time to reflect on this fellowship but also want to be present for everything that first semester senior year will come with. In an attempt to reflect and move forward from the fellowship I want to continue communication with St Lucy’s and my students. I’ll really miss so many of the kids and it’s crazy how fast time really flies. For anyone reading who’s considering applying for a Smith Fellowship, do it. There’s never going to be a “right” time for anything and I’ve learned so much about myself, about St Dominic, and about education as a whole through this fellowship. Who knows if I’ll even do anything in the education field but what I learned at St Lucy’s I can apply to anything I do in life. What I’ve learned at St Lucy’s (veritas, if you will) is kindness, compassion, and patience. Of these three things I think that the most important one is patience. I usually react to situations immediately and “get caught in the moment” as my Dad says but my time in Sydney and at St Lucy’s has challenged me to think and to wait. Working with special needs children requires that one has patience, shows kindness, and is able to be compassionate every single day. While I’m sure I had these three qualities maybe somewhere inside me, I was able to deeply uncover them.
This fellowship has also made me so much appreciative of all of the incredible gifts I have in my life. Most importantly the greatest gift being my family who’s supported me in every thing I’ve ever done. I’ve missed my family so much through and “not getting homesick” is something that I weirdly bragged about at Providence. But being homesick is okay and missing your family is certainly okay. We tell the kids whatever their feeling that day is okay and often times just as humans we forget that it’s the truth. I’ve felt so many feelings throughout this fellowship. Some days were
great and happy and some were really hard.
But throughout this fellowship the one thing that I’ve consistently felt is gratitude. Gratitude to everyone who made this Fellowship possible financially, to my parents, to Providence, to St Dominic, to St Ignatius, and to St Francis who all three have shaped the woman I am today.
I know this is long and God Bless if you’re still reading but if you are I’m praying for you and I’d ask for your prayers for the long journey home on Friday.