Author: James Key

Dublin city by night
Student Stories
James Key

Streetwalking on a Dublin Night

“In some way, I’d like to think a lone walk through the city streets may be analogized to the pinball freely exploring the interior of the chamber, free from the careening shunts of the levers and absent all the flashing lights.”

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Film shoot inside Kiladoon House, County Kildare
Student Stories
James Key

Stargazing

“Leaving the foggy cobbled streets for the empty quiet of the freeways, I felt affirmed by the fact that here we were, up and at ‘em early before anyone else. It’s like a game of dominoes – you nail the first push and the rest of the pieces fall seamlessly. In line with this metaphor, awaking on time and being the first to arrive on set portends a day of good old fashioned hard work.”

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Luas Tram in Dublin
Student Stories
James Key

Fighting the Tide

“Imagine your mind is a great ocean in which the crest and troughs of waves, representing fleeting thoughts, swell in and out of existence. It is your choice, should you choose to ride a particular wave, whether you will fight against it and in so doing expend your precious energy or whether you will simply let it carry you until it gently dissipates.”

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Books and Milton at TCD
Student Stories
James Key

The Long Room

“My prior impression of library hallways is that they are typically flooded with sterile white light. The Long Room instead relies quite heavily on natural light, which casts itself more carefully across the 65-meter-long hall.”

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Street in Dublin City Centre
Student Stories
James Key

New Leather Boots

“I figure the same thing applies to my boots. They’re not relatively more practical than my hiking shoes for example but I still arbitrate them for separate occasions. Once I’m in my working clothes, the rest of the morning routine passes effortlessly. I arrive at the Luas tramline on time and proceed on my morning commute.”

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Wellington Monument obelisk in Phoenix Park
Student Stories
James Key

The Lessons of Nature

“The one resolution that helps me sit at ease with this outlook is the following: consider the bigger picture. Look at the trees, the plants, the squirrels, the birds not for themselves but as part of a larger machine – the ecosystem that is flourishing before you. It’s an interconnected whole that emerged through the collaboration of many smaller subsystems. Recognize that you, like these smaller elements you are focusing on, are characters in a larger story – perhaps one we cannot understand fully but is being told nonetheless.”

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Halloween gathering
Student Stories
James Key

Passing it Onward

The Celtic festival of Samhain is identified as the cultural foundation of the traditions of Halloween. In honor of this legacy, the Irish appear to have a great reverence for the tradition – the scale of preparation and commitment to the occasion took me by surprise, though perhaps it ought to be expected of them, as a culture that protects its heritage through partaking in it.

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Temple Bar, Dublin
Internships
James Key

This forgiving city

When you’re a fish out of water in another country, even the most mundane of errands becomes an opportunity for culture shock.

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Broom Bridge, Cabra
Internships
James Key

Betting on Beauty

With the arresting beauty that surrounds this quant bridge, particularly on a sunnier day, it is not hard to imagine being confronted with blissful insight, or at least divergent perspective.

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