The Diarmuid Gillingham Blog

As I write this blog post, it is two months to the day since I returned to Ireland from my year in Germany. With that in mind, I decided to put a list together of what emotions, feelings, and realizations have hit me over that time. I wanted to write this piece about two weeks before starting University again, but at the time I found my mind was still abroad and it was too early to write such a blog post in a manner that would reflect reality.   1) Your body and mind will feel out of sink  When leaving your newly adopted home, you say many goodbyes followed by many hellos. You pack your things up and then unpack again while dealing with annoying and over-crowded airports in between. All of these actions would suggest that you are home for good, but it takes your brain time to fully understand that you’re not going back. Even if it is just that one per cent of you that is not willing to accept the fact yet.   2) Your heart won't break but it will be divided Before moving t...

Introduction Education is something that is important to all of us. Whether you’re somebody who didn’t finish high school or somebody who did go to University and not only got their bachelor but masters and PhD as well. Our time in education plays a massive role in how we see ourselves, our careers and much of the world around us. It is education where we got some of our first experiences of friendship and love as well as confusion and worry about our future. In this piece, I am going to speak about my own experiences in University and discuss both the pros and cons of attending an institution that can be seen as the most important decision in many people’s lives. Finally, I will finish with a conclusion.    Personal Story First of all, I have never been and I will likely never be an "A student." For the most part, I am a straight “C” student (55% to 70% ).  In secondary school (6 years between the ages of 12 and 18 in Ireland) I received maybe, 5 As (85% or higher). All ...

I will be the first to admit it, Twitter is not as easy as it looks. If you look at it on the surface it can be hard to find your particular part of it all. Unlike Facebook where new friends, pages and groups are constantly suggested, Twitter can sometimes be a one-man island. Yes, twitter has the “who to follow” feature but these are usually celebrities who are unlikely to follow you back at first. Without the right strategies, Twitter can be a very lonely place. The second reason many of us struggle with Twitter if the feeling that we need to be tweeting at least 3-4 times a day. Something that is uncommon on other social media platforms. Whether we admit it or not this can be a bit overwhelming. There is nobody out there saying we actually need to do this but at the same time it’s not too hard. A tweet has a limit of 140 characters, many of us would text that before leaving the house in the morning. What I often hear is “How can I tweet every day, when I have nothing to tweet about?...

Sort out the essentials before arriving This may not sound like the most exciting advice in the world, but that makes our first piece of advice any less important. Before arriving in a new country make you know exactly where you will be living and how to get there. There are few experiences, more stressful than arriving in a new country and not having any idea where you are going with a few suitcases weighing you down in the process. This is even more vital is you’re doing your exchange in a country in which you don’t speak the language fluently. So before leaving home to make sure you have the address written down and have details notes on how the local bus or train system will get you there. The third major thing to remember is to make sure your mobile phone and sim card will be useable. This can be useful for Google maps and simply telling your family you arrived in one piece. Finally, speak to your bank in your home country to make sure your card will be usable is your new destinat...

Dear Reader,   I have made a discovery, one that makes my world and hopefully yours make a little more sense. That discovery you ask? It was the moment I realised I was a multipotentialite. A mouthful I know, but that just makes it all the more exciting. A multipotentialite is somebody who has a wider range of interest than the average person and I would argue ambitions too.   This journey started about 3 weeks ago when an Irish man named Nicholas Grundy introduced himself to me and invited me to listen to his TEDx Talk.    Which I did and soon I realised it was like looking at my future self. Nick is a professional photography now, he’s fluent in German, he is a speaker and also somehow has fitted in the time to see much of the world. These are all interest we have in common, but he also told me he is an engineer and has done time in the army. Looking at Nick I saw my doppelgänger, not in terms of the interest we have in common but rather the amount of them. I found...

  There is a wonderful saying that says “people come in all shapes and sizes, and they are all beautiful” A statement that we all need to keep in mind when dealing with people and forming views on them, whether we mean to do it or not.  Everybody is misunderstood at some stage. It could be from a parent, spouse, workmate, friend, sibling or mentor. More specifically groups and types of people can be misunderstood, especially in a society that is so picky about what is normal and expected. With this people can be sorted into certain groups and stereotypes. For example, some people may hear a man is gay and expect him to be very flamboyant. While others may see somebody has tattoos and assume their life has no direction. There are endless examples. The misunderstood group I want to discuss are introverts. In a world where everybody is expected to be happy and social 24/7, introverts can be seen as weird, awkward and boring. So as an introvert, I hope this piece clears up many of...