When I started completing the weekly graduate.ie quizzes in
November of 2023, I never thought I would actually come this far.

It all started when my CSPE teacher Ms Morrissey told me that she
thought I would be incredibly suited to a competition that allowed
students to travel to the EU parliament. I completed 10 of the
quizzes and one day in school my year head informed me that I
had won and would be travelling to Strasbourg the following year!

Even though I was incredibly nervous due to the pressure of
meeting lots of other students, my nerves quickly settled as I met
the group in Dublin airport. The group met at 3;30 in Terminal 2 ,
we all tried to learn everyone’s names and counties while fighting
back our tiredness.

The 2 hour flight flew by because of the great company I had
found. Though the whole group didn’t click instantly, me and some
of the other girls were connected simultaneously.

When we arrived in Frankfurt we struggled to find our bus and
while this delayed us we had more time to chat to everyone and
make group chats online. We travelled 2 hours to a town called
banden- banden. We had an amazing time wandering around
shopping and eating and then headed on our way to Strasbourg.

We arrived at Hotel Origami in Strasbourg around 6 o’clock and
organised dinner as well as the room allocations.
That night there was lots of chatting and bonding over different
connections between the counties.

The next day we spent in the EU Parliament and participated in
Euroscola. It was an outstanding day in my opinion because of my
interest in the MEP’s and politics in general. I had the opportunity
to contribute questions to the different representatives and vote
on legislation which was all incredibly interesting.

We spent that night walking around Strasbourg and figuring out
the tram station after shopping which was wild to me coming
from a small town in Mayo.

On the last day we were all emotional about leaving our newfound
friends while we took a boat trip around the city to explore and
visited the famous Strasbourg cathedral. We shopped some more
in Heidelberg and found lots of souvenirs for family and friends.
On the flight home we all said our goodbyes and we were in
disbelief that it had only been a couple of days since we had all
met in front of the escalators at departures in the airport.

I want to thank all of the organisers and my sponsors: Mayo
County Council and Ombudsman for Children for this excellent
trip.
I met lots of new friends and my interest in politics as well as
Ireland’s role in the EU has certainly grown exponentially.
This was the most memorable experience and I don’t think this
won’t be my last stint in politics!