For those of you who have no Irish - which I imagine is most of you - "Post Amháin" simply means "first post". Rather boring, I admit, but I thought I'd keep with the running Gaelic theme created by the blog name.
I've always wanted to write a blog. Not necessarily documenting a certain topic - I've done that before - but merely an online space for me to share a little bit of myself with random online strangers :-) Who knows why that appeals to me? If you're a qualified psychologist you can probably tell me - but for my part, I find the concept of some of my thoughts and feelings striking a chord with some unknown kindred spirit somewhere in cyberspace immensely gratifying!
I love to share. I think this planet, this world has so much in it to make us cynical and suspicious of each other. We spend so much of our lives comparing, judging, assessing, criticising each other. Life is short, we should make the best of it - not only for ourselves, but for each other.
Anyway, I digress. And I'm probably being too word-y. I shall tell you all about myself, since I know nothing about any of you, and indeed I might not even be able to get anyone to read this blog :-)
My name - once again - is Grace. I'm 22 (at the moment), and extremely glad to call myself an Irishwoman. Not out of some fanatical patriotism, I just rather like Ireland and enjoy a certain fondness and camaraderie with most of my fellow Irish people, so I'm glad to be from there. And like most Irish people, I love to talk. As my dad would say, I'd talk the hind legs off a donkey. I would, too. A huge part of what initiated my desire to write a blog is the fact that I am recently returned from a 6-month stint in the developing world. Malawi, to be precise. I went there alone as part of my undergraduate degree to work with an NGO, and as formative experiences go it was one of the most major of my life. I was incredibly isolated and lonely for a lot of my time there, and while this was incredibly difficult I have decided to attempt to take away as much positives as possible from it. It changed me enormously as a person and as a woman, and for the most part (!), I think these changes were overwhelmingly positive.
It turned my life upside-down and inside-out, and called into question everything I was, did, and believed. I was engaged to be married when I left, and I broke it off on my return. I had incredibly staunch religious beliefs when I left, and while I remain a theist ("a theist", not "atheist". Important distinction there) it certainly called much of my belief system into question. I was rather politically neutral when I left, and now, ironically, my political stance is more left, than when I left (nice touch, eh?).
So! I think somehow that documenting some of my garbled thoughts and questions and sharing them with you all will be beneficial. Surprisingly enough for someone who has spent 6 months staring at mind-numbing human suffering and dire poverty, I actually believe very strongly in the inherent goodness of human beings. I wouldn't have gone there if I didn't care about other people, and I think that being frank and open in our dealings with each other - sharing a little of ourselves without thought for how vulnerable it makes us - can make the difference between feeling the kind of isolation and cynical indifference towards others that we see a lot, and feeling connected to others. And hopefully content to have that connection.
Do you know something? I'm not sure that last bit makes sense. It kind of sounds like I've been reading too many of my mom's self-help books, doesn't it? I hope you get my general meaning, though. Otherwise you'll think I'm weird for foisting all of my jumbled thoughts on you. Maybe you will anyway *^_^*
