In my four years at the University of Dayton, I made countless friends – many of which will last a lifetime. Even though I’d bet my life savings they don’t read this even if I text them the link I’d like to give a special shoutout to my three roommates and teammates PJ, Brendan, and Tripp – you guys are locks to be in my wedding, assuming that day eventually arrives (Brendan will be at the far end of the groomsmen line because I know he would try to make me laugh). If I could offer any proof for them being lifetime friends, it would be that PJ actually flew overseas from Cleveland to visit for a week in late January. Peter Malik Jr (AKA Peter, Pete, Junior, PJ, Peaches, and *sigh* “Pistol”) fancies himself as a true Irishman with his ginger hair and almost entirely Irish ancestry, so this gave him a perfect opportunity to finally make the trip to the emerald isle.
We spent the day of his arrival in Dublin at the mildly famous Brazen Head pub (Est. 1198) which is more than three times older than the country we are from. That of course means they’ve had plenty of years to perfect the pouring of a pint of Guinness, which naturally we each enjoyed with our full Irish breakfasts. On a completely random note, when doing introductions at the Jameson tour that day I discovered that four of the 25 people in our tour group were from Wisconsin (like me) and they all live within a 20 minute drive of where I grew up, and we had tons of mutual friends. Small world we live in!
Anyway, we spent the rest of his trip in Belfast, where we were able to celebrate my (belated) 23rd birthday as well as Shay’s and Kollyns’ birthdays. It also was Super Bowl weekend and if only it weren’t the most boring Super Bowl in the history of the game it would have been a perfect week. Pete and I are a lot bigger fans of the pub and live music scene than we are clubbers, so Belfast is ideal and it was easy to show him my favorite places. It really is a small, Northern Irish version of Nashville, but without the cheesy/touristy parts. Every good pub seems to have live music most nights a week. For the sake of sounding like I have my life together, I won’t list all of them, but if you’re a scholar reading this in future years just know that you can’t go wrong with the Thirsty Goat, the Dirty Onion, and The Points. I’ll let you figure out the rest.
As he was a teammate of mine at Dayton, I was able to bring him along to Holywood GC for some extra help at our coaching sessions. I started to realize how much pride I am taking in the junior program we have when I was excited just to see him be impressed by the talent and attitude of the kids we coach. Lastly, we made a few trips up to Monkstown Boxing Club for some (as always) intense training. He was hoping to spar but I don’t think he realized trainers don’t let you just pull up and get in the ring on your first night!
That week was one to remember. We had a ton of fun, spent a little too much money and energy, and I got to show one of my best friends around a city that I’ve been calling home for almost six months now. While I’m confident I will make friends wherever I go, I’m very fortunate to have a handful of close ones that will last a lifetime. Pete coming overseas solidified that notion. I’m also making an Amsterdam trip soon with some of my best high school friends, and I’m sure that will be a week for the books as well.
