College Reminiscing

There have been lots of ads on tv as of late for college, and college choices, and it made me think back and get all dewy eyed about my college days. So I thought I'd take a little trip down memory lane for you guys...
Firstly I'm not from Limerick I'm a Dublin/Kildare hybrid who had aspirations of moving beyond The Pale(for my non-Irish readers that means outside Dublin),and away from my parents, it's not that I didn't love them they are just very strict. The choice was pretty easy, I always knew I wanted to do art, so I applied to everywhere in Ireland and made my decision after the interview stage. The Limerick School of Art and Design seemed like hard work, and that they would push me really hard, so I chose there( i cried in the interview). Now for the benifit of the non-Irish among you I will explain that Limerick has a very bad reputation for stabbing, murder and gangs. I deserves some of this reputation,in my time here an aquantance has been beaten to death, another stabbed, and my place of work was burnt down due to a gang fued , but a lot of the time it's over blown to sell newspapers. So my parents were more than a little nervous when I informed them of my new choice of residence. So at first I rented a room in a family house and, got food poisening from the landlady, and locked myself in my room for months drawing or texting on my phone. Not a good way to start college.
It took me a long time to make genuine friends, and found the first year very difficult, socially. When I look back I see someone who was very young, and wanted to be accepted but I was tired of pandering to a cool crowd. Somehow I thought these things would cease to exist in art college, and that all the bullshit of school would be left behind. Thankfully in my second year, I made some really great friends that suited my more bookish(less partying) sensibilities. We sat in old man pubs, drank guinness, talked art and philosophy, and were generally blissfuly pretentious. The friendships I made over those tasty pints have seen me through the past 9 years, and I'm sure will continue for a lifetime. I think being down here without family has enabled me to make really strong bonds with people, it forced me out of my comfort zone.
As for the actual art side of things, it was amazing, I learnt so much, and yet I could have done so much more. I was a pretty swotty student, but even now looking back I realised I squandered most of the facilities/time/information. I suppose hindsight and age are a great things. I took in as much as I could, but sometimes I wonder if it would not be better to be a mature student. I could see myself valuing it all a lot more if I did the course now. But I don't think I could would like to be in college in my late 20's, in a way there are somethings only life-not college-can teach you.
It's taken me 5 years to come close to figuring out how to make a living off my art/craft. When I finished college there was a huge anti-climax, especially after I had done so well. I felt cheated to go back to working a part time minimum wage job, and yet I couldn't see a way forward into doing what I wanted creatively. It's been a long meandering path, but at it's centre there has been the knowledge, that I am compelled/addicted/need to make things, be it digitally, photographically, painting,drawing or sewing. I'm really glad I made that random choice of coming to Limerick, I've found this crazy sense of home here, a city that feels like a village, with warts and all, but I love it.

A document of random memories before they disapear into the ether:
Popping giant bubble wrap with John for hours waiting on assessments results, sneaking into the haunted attic and finding loads of human hair all over the floor,doing all nighters and ordering pizza, living with a german ex hermit who thought he could time travel, flinging a packet of butter out my kitchen window that had been infected with slugs, climbing down 'that' cliffside, getting that wonderful surprise of The Lord of the Rings book smuggled into my luggage on the trip back to Limerick, hiding under a coffee table while my landlord busted in on a house party of 200 people, daytrips to the freezing seaside with Sharon, butter pasta with black pepper at 4am, no heating for 3 years relieved by the odd fire when we could afford coal...and so many more