On-Site Orientation

Student AND STAFF Stories

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.”

Read

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.”

Read

Wellington Monument obelisk in Phoenix Park

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.”

Read

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.

Read