CHRISTINA KENNY IS a PhD student and blogger who has written extensively about her mother’s experience with cystic fibrosis.
After many years in Dublin, she recently moved to Belfast to pursue her studies – and it made her rethink her former home.
So Christina wrote this open letter to the city. Read it, and think about where you live.
Dear Dublin, It’s been a while. I never thought I’d write what I am about to write but I guess life is funny like that. I left your bustling, cold, wet streets on a typical October evening and thought I’d never look back. I thought I’d never miss the electric atmosphere, the loud, muffled laughter from a music-filled pub or the weird and wonderful strangers who made the streets their own. There was a time when I didn’t like you. There was time when I didn’t understand you. There was a time when you chewed me up and spat me out. Left me lying on the streets, lost and heart-broken. You were there for it all.
You were there when I was scared, wandering through the streets in the early hours. You were there for the melt-downs and the storms. You were there to witness the mean boys and shaping adventures. You were also there when I stood on the lawns of Trinity College as summer was approaching. You were there for my first kiss with a boy that later stole my heart. You were there for the laughter. You were there for the eight gallons of Bewleys hot chocolate and the O’Connell Street kiosk donuts. You were there for the unbreakable bonds of friendship that were formed. You were there for the moment my roommate turned into my best friend. You were there for my drunken rendition of Ed Sheeran on Leeson Street and my deep, meaningful conversations with taxi drivers.
What I didn’t realise at the time is that you healed me. When I first met you I was broken. I was looking for a new beginning and you gave me just that. You were fast-paced and wild and I needed that. I let life get in the way of that precious relationship we were forming and I blamed it partially on you. Then, abruptly, unannounced I upped and left. No note, no explanation, no love lost. Until some months later when I craved you. I needed you. I needed your street musicians, your eccentric people, the diverse accents that populate your hub and your heart. I didn’t appreciate you. I took you for granted. I let life cheapen my opinion of you. I see that now. I’m sorry. I’ll be back. Right now I am in a new city. It isn’t the same. It has yet to beguile me. It has yet to enchant me. Thank you. For all of it. I needed it. Always, Christina.
Oh, Dublin.
To read more from Christina, go here.
h/t Her.ie
Written by Michael Freeman and posted on DailyEdge.ie
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