An Ode to my Three Weeks of CTYI

Everyon asks: What is CTYI? Why go? School in the summer? The easy answer is that it is the Irish Center for Talented youth at Dublin City University. But is that what it really is? Why do people pend three of their precious summer weeks going to classes away from home? I feel like there are different reasons to go. Sometimes it could be for the classes, sometimes for the people. But the real answer, the one everyone is looking for, the universal reason for people coming to CTYI is the feeling while you are there. When I walk onto that campus Iam in my element. A sort of frenzied peace comes over you, one that cannot be disturbed. When you are at CTYI you are not just your true self, you are living your true life.
You enter CTYI as a scared little newbie with no clue what to do when instinct tells you to run away from the guy with the lip piercing and bathrobe. You quickly become accustomed to lying on the floor of the canteen durng Stree Spirit or jumping into the conga line during 500 miles. It is normal for your entire class to burst out into song with no reason and for boys to dress like girls on Tuesday. They are just your regular occurences, and you can't imagine anything different. There are the girls you stay up with and giggle and chat for ages with, the ones you get dressed for discos and 'study' with. There are the boys who give incredible hugs, the ones you want and know you won't get, although there is an occasional guy or two do do get three weeks with.
The reason we go to CTYI is that it is normal for bread rolls to be thrown and snide remarks made abnout the sportalians. Then thereare, at the heart of the three weeks, the people, you friends. Some of them end up being your best friends. For me it is an eclectric group of us, the ones I care about the most. There is the stubborn girl with long hair who hates protection, the guy with long hair that is often green or purple, and the fake lip ring and cains on his jeans who frequently screeches "Gaybar" There is the slightly bigger, preppier boys whoes nickname, Tuppy (half bear half puppy) says all. The beautiful long haired sweetheart with great converse and high energy. There is the tall ginger who is bouncy and constantly smiling and squeeling. And then there is me. it quieter one, the smiley one, the glue between the people.
See though, these descriptions don't begin to makes there people real to you. They don't even start to describe Annie, or Jayme, or Mike, or Nella, or Laura, or even, in someways, me. These people are bigger than anything I can produce with some blue ink and a good vocabulary. These are my best friends, they have been and still will be. I can depend on all of them; every single on of them every single day. It doesn't matter that nearly all of them are across the ocean. There are my people, and I am one of their's.
Then there are the people you meet year to year. The ones you haven't known nearly as long but love just as much. There was my little sister, Gracie with the glasses and the grin, Sinaed with the hugs and similes as big as the ocean, and the converse and a mind as dirty as mine. There is Maurice who likes to cause trouble but is one of the most honest and innocent people you could find. There is little Anne-Marie with unstoppable energy and the higest sucess rate as a hug monster. There is Bobby, Annie's brother. Not new to me, but no longer scared of me. More commonly known as Stalin, he is the sweetest, most goodhearted kid I've ever met.
There is the other spekrum from the newbies. We are the nevermores. Nevermore is not the right term though. Because never is too long a time to stay away. But also, CTYI isn't just in Dublin, it is here on the plane with Keller and me or in LA with Katie and Sonnie. It is wherever Jayme and Sinaed are. We are CTYI. We are my CTYI. So maybe we've left the DCU campus forever, mayber (hopefully) we'll never eat canteen food again. Bu I will only be a nevermore when not a single person I met there is in my life anymore. I will be a nevermore when there is no more. and, as far as I'm considered there will always be more. We are nver finished. Never Ever.