Clark Shepard, Associate Creative Director

A writer has two jobs: observe and report.

I call it sponge work. You go into the world, you soak in every little insignificant detail, you wring it out onto the page – and little by little you come to understand there are no insignificant details. There are tiny little fragments of brilliance. Each and every one of them, the smoking gun leading us to something true and honest and human and real. Sure, maybe I’m assigning too much academia and empathy to a profession that is ultimately responsible for this Quizno’s ad, but let’s not forget it’s also the same profession that gave us Dr. Rick. And make no mistake: There would be no such Doctor without the sponge work. 

Anyway, here I am burying the lead like a cooking blog you have to scroll through pages of “My husband’s laser tag obsession is ruining my life” just to find the recipe. Hi, I’m Clark Shepard, Associate Creative Director here at Connelly Partners, and I lived in Ireland for September as a part of our CP Abroad program. As I sit here and reflect on that experience – with incredible gratitude I might add – I keep coming back to one word (and yes, it’s a call back from one entire paragraph ago): Observation. 

Is observation paramount to a writer’s success? Yes. Am I awesome at deploying it all the time? No. Why? Well, my therapist refused to be quoted for this blog post, but I think it comes down to this: nothing dulls the sensors quite like a routine. The same breakfast, the same commute, the same conversations with the same people – every day – it’s a restrictor plate on the lawn mower of creativity (weird metaphor, but I just mowed). So the prospect of leaving that routine of creature comforts behind was an utterly stomach-churning, terrifying, world-upending…relief. As I sat on the 7-hour flight from Boston to Dublin, in between viewings of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and a Masterclass on how to appreciate wine (turns out I was doing it wrong), I gave myself a challenge. A challenge to set aside the roles I play in my everyday life (a shameless entertainer with a need for validation in any and all forms, for example). Quite simply, I made it my mission to step back and listen up. 

So I sat on barstools across Ireland, listening to people complain, and laugh, and express gratitude, and go on first dates, and also one or two last dates. Strangers taught me rugby on the fly, and let me join in the camaraderie of pain and euphoria and more pain during the World Cup. When I forgot to pack a raincoat on my first weekend trip to Howth, I sought shelter from a storm in a hole-in-the-wall pub. I ended up spending 6 hours there – just listening. 

I hopped a 4am flight to London one morning and watched its city streets wake up. In the afternoon, I took the Underground to Tottenham to see my beloved Hotspurs in action. What I felt, sitting by myself in a stadium of 70,000 fans, was oddly anything but alone. After trailing for 98 minutes, they tied it up in electric fashion. Two minutes later, they scored again – producing from the crowd the single loudest sound I’ve ever heard (and the loudest, highest-pitched sound I’ve ever made). Strangers were grabbing me by the sleeves as I blindly grabbed back. A dad and his teenage son both bear-hugged me. Oh, and a woman, who could not have been a day younger than a full century, open-mouth kissed me. I called home to my wife, explaining in great detail that my mouth had remained shut for the duration. It was the latest winning comeback in Premier League history – she understood. 

Later on in my trip, I took a tour bus from Galway, full of the most touristy tourists you’ll ever see, to the Cliffs of Moher. Though I spent hours weaving through the foot traffic of the path, and weaving through their conversations as I did, I might have only said three words the entire day. They all happened at the same moment, as I reached the preeminent cliff’s edge. I believe the words were “Holy F****ing Sh*t”. 

For a month straight, I did the sponge work. Consciously at first, but then it just became second nature, as if my primal code was wiped back to its factory settings. When I got back to the States, I felt lighter. Not literally of course – Ireland operates as though potatoes are vegetables and Guinness has electrolytes. I felt lighter with this newfound proof that every second of life is fascinating if only you remember to tune in. I went to Ireland to become a better listener, and I might have accidentally become a better writer in the process. For that I’m grateful. 

*Raises a Guinness*

To doing the sponge work. 

Abby Peterson, Associate Creative Director

There are plenty of sayings about routine being the enemy of creativity – like that exact quote from Isaac Asimov – but what about the routine you fall into and don’t even realize you’re in? That has to be the worst creative killer of all.

The CP Abroad experience was an incredible way for me to break from my routine and rethink the way I think as a creative.

“One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure.” – William Feather

When I’m traveling, I’m the type of person who wants to make the most out of every second I spend somewhere. I’m making Google Docs with all of my plans, researching restaurants and pinning them to maps, planning excursions I would never attempt to fit into my schedule at home.

I find a parallel with my creative expression – I want to plan and control it, execute exactly what I have in my mind. But when I’m actually doing it, I find myself exploring and am always surprised by where I end up. 

The benefit to the CP Abroad experience, for me, was embracing my type-A planning persona, while also living and working like a normal human being. I completely changed the way I’m used to working at home so that I could maximize my time exploring new places and leaving myself the opportunity to be surprised and spontaneous. 

“Surprised!” Painting by Henri Rousseau, National Gallery of London; Copenhagen; Amsterdam

I took in as much art, architecture and history as I could. I visited 5 countries – Scotland, Ireland, England, the Netherlands and Denmark, each different in their personality and culture.

I went all over Ireland and drank in its history. I drove to Northern Ireland and learned from locals there the fascinating (recent) history of the Belfast troubles. I went west to the Dingle Peninsula and saw great surf, forts from the 6th century and held a baby lamb. I drove from Galway to the harbor and took a ferry to the remote Aran Island Inisheer and hiked along the tops of the Cliffs of Moher. 

I did things I never would have thought about at home – like flying a falcon on the rocky shores of Ireland. Or drive on the left side under a rainbow on narrow country roads. Or get a spontaneous tattoo I based loosely off my favorite branding from my favorite Irish Stout…

International travel has a way of engaging the senses in unique ways, from tasting unfamiliar foods to seeing breathtaking landscapes to hearing different music and foreign languages. I found myself constantly inspired, and reinvigorated creatively.

“A person who does the same things each day will not grow, change, or learn as much as a person who constantly seeks out new experiences.” – Karen Salmansohn

Before I left for Ireland, I often found myself asking, “how did I ever do everything I did in one day before Covid?” I had a routine to provide stability and structure but left myself open to new experiences to continue growing, learning, and finding creative inspiration in life. (I was also younger and didn’t have a dog to take care of, but that’s beside the point…) It’s made me come home with a fresh perspective on my life and my own city – I want to experience it and be inspired every day, in ways I never have been before.

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” – Oscar Wilde

Cliffs of Moher

 

 

 

Mary McMahon, Group Strategy Director“I want to go home to Dublin, but I don’t want to leave Boston.” This was the conundrum of my 5-year-old daughter as our time in Boston on the CP Abroad Program came to a close. After a month of hot American summer, immersing ourselves in everything Boston has to offer, I pretty much felt the same! 

As a company that truly believes in integration, Connelly Partners offers all employees the opportunity to live and work from one of its office locations in Dublin, Boston, or Vancouver. During this time, you work side by side with colleagues from that office, who you usually only ever see on screens. At the same time, you are able to completely immerse yourself in the culture and explore everything these cities have to offer. 

My role at CP has allowed me to visit our Boston office a number of times over the past few years, but this opportunity to spend an extended period of time there made it possible for my family to come along too. I worked from the office in Boston’s South End, which is HUGE and always takes a bit of navigation to find my way around. 

While I work with some Boston clients already and have met many of my colleagues virtually, there’s nothing like meeting in person. I learned how invaluable face-to-face meetings are for building relationships and fostering creativity. While in Boston, I noticed that the stop-start “no you go, no you go” nature of conversations on Zoom was replaced with free-flowing comradery and ideas, leading to even more focused and productive conversations. 

After office hours, I dusted off my old rugby trainers, donned a baseball cap, and joined the company softball team on the field for games. It was a fun way to meet more of my CP Boston colleagues and immerse myself more in the company culture. 

Outside of work, I found that Boston had so much to offer me and my family – every evening, we explored the city and beyond. Some highlights include seeing the Red Sox play at Fenway Park, visiting the New England Aquarium, and even a trip to New York City. The general buzz and energy of the Italian North End we were staying in is an atmosphere that I’ll always remember. And how could I forget the roof deck on the condo?

Dana Wantman, Senior Partner & Chief Client and Integration Officer

I missed the opportunity to study abroad in college. It was offered, I was just a bit too lazy, or maybe immature, to take advantage of it – one of my few regrets. You can’t go back in time, but when the opportunity to live and work in Ireland for a month through CP Abroad presented itself, I wasn’t going to miss out again.  

I was lucky enough to be part of creating the Abroad program and I was excited to see how it came to life. Putting the program on paper is much different than really experiencing it. The intention behind the program was a simple one. Create a program that would spark curiosity…live, learn, explore, be inspired, and bring all that back home to share with co-workers and clients.    

So off we went….

We booked short-term housing, sight unseen (for someone with control issues this was a very uncomfortable endeavor), in an area of Dublin called Sandymount, and boy did we nail it – walking distance to the CP Office, the beach, and a great little downtown area where the Pubs outnumbered the grocery stores 4-1. It truly felt like a storybook town.  

One of my favorite parts of this trip was getting to walk to work. Twenty-five minutes of calm and quiet walking through beautiful neighborhoods, with a cappuccino in one hand and an umbrella in the other. I love our office in Dublin – the location is amazing and there’s a great energy. It reminds me of the early days of the CP Boston office when we’d just yell to each other over desks. There’s still great energy in Boston, it’s just different with 80 people as opposed to 40. Getting to work with, meet and just “be” with the team was one of the key motivators behind the CP Abroad program. The team was incredibly welcoming to me and my family. We got great recommendations about what to see, where to eat, how to get around, etc…they made us feel like neighbors, not tourists.

I also had the opportunity to attend an IAPI event (Ireland’s version of the 4A’s). It was a recap of Cannes, and as a community what it would take to have a better showing next year. And rather than people lamenting that the judging was unfair, or that clients were too conservative or didn’t have big enough budgets, it was a discussion around what it would take to be better, to do better work and drive clients’ business… There truly is a close-knit and talented creative community in Ireland. I left feeling excited about what our team could do and how we can inspire the entire organization with the same focus on strategic and creative excellence.

But it wasn’t all work. We did all the touristy stuff too.

• We explored Dublin and the Irish Countryside
• Stayed at a beautiful resort with the most incredible gardens. Truth be told, visiting gardens wasn’t high on my list of priorities, but they were truly spectacular.  
• Played golf in Ireland (bucket list ✔️)
• Walked up the Arc de Triomphe. That’s a lot of steps.
• Shopped along the Champs-Élysees
• River cruised down the Seine
• Went up the Eiffel Tower (only to the second observation deck. Go ahead and judge me, that thing’s high.)
• Got lost in the neighborhoods of Paris. Breathtaking…
• Saw the Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Parliament, Piccadilly Circus
• Toured Kensington and Buckingham Palace
• Took a double-decker bus tour
• Shopped in Harrods
• Toured Stamford Bridge

I can’t look back on this trip without a tremendous amount of gratitude and appreciation.  A total immersion into a different culture, the opportunity to meet countless great people and hear their stories, and work alongside some incredibly talented people…. memories for a lifetime.  

I’m excited to bring those experiences and a renewed cultural curiosity back to Boston. 

We started CP Abroad with a simple premise. Create the kind of connections, experiences and curiosity that would inspire our team and benefit our clients. Mission accomplished.

Clióna Gallagher, Client Services Intern

Dear Future CP Intern,

My name is Clióna Gallagher and I am a final-year marketing student at the Technological University of Dublin. As I approach the end of my internship, I wanted to share some advice that I’ve gathered with anyone who is considering pursuing a career in the marketing and advertising field.

Throughout the course of my degree, my professors have consistently emphasized the importance of acquiring authentic industry experience via internships. They stressed that participating would ensure I gain priceless insights and expertise, equipping me to connect my academic learning with real-world scenarios upon my graduation. Engaging in an internship within the dynamic realm of marketing would enable me to discern the specific sector I aim to pursue in the near future.

During my internship at Connelly Partners, I was fortunate to engage in a diverse array of creative activities while also gaining a comprehensive understanding of the intricate dynamics behind nurturing client relationships. Working between the various sectors of the business allowed me to take a hands-on approach to my internship. Whether it be making my cameo debut in a client’s campaign shoot, or conducting exploratory research for a new pitch, I am confident I maximized the opportunities that were presented to me during my tenure here. Given the fiercely competitive and saturated nature of the marketing and advertising industry, it can be daunting to enter. However, the exposure that one gains from working with agencies such as Connelly Partners instills a profound sense of confidence in both oneself and the chosen career path.

Cheers!

Clióna Gallagher
Client Services Intern
She/Her

Anna Grace, New Business Intern

Dear Future CP Intern,

My name is Anna Grace, a recent graduate from Emerson College with a degree in marketing communications. When I was in college, I received advice from a professor about internships, stressing that they are “the cheapest way to fail successfully.” What I took from that is that you should try out an industry that interests you. After your experience, if you don’t like certain aspects of the industry you can pivot. It took me a couple of pivots to realize what skills I had to offer and how I wanted to build upon them.

Working in new business has allowed me to get a glimpse into what the advertising world looks like and how an agency runs. The pitch process is a lot like speed dating because the client meets with various agencies, who present their ideas and what they can offer. After the winning agency is selected, they work with the client to agree on a scope of work and then the team gets to work strategizing, concepting, and physically creating the campaign.  

Getting one’s foot in the door to the advertising industry is a great opportunity and accomplishment, but it can also be stressful. With Fall internship applications coming up, I wanted to write a letter of encouragement with tips for prospective interns from CP’s Summer interns.

Anna Grace
New Business Intern
She/Her

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Seek Out Human Truths

Jackson graduated from Kenyon College with a degree in English creative writing. He shares his experience of being “thrown into the deep end and working in tandem with other copywriters on projects” that challenged and excited him. As he settled into the internship, his goals and expectations were confirmed; he expresses how he “learned to abandon clichés and puns and instead passionately seek out human truths.” He urges those who are interested in copywriting to, “go online or to your local bookstore and buy old One Show annuals, and while you’re reading them, if you get a rush of dopamine that goes straight from the top of your head to the nerve endings in your fingertips, you’re heading in the right direction.”

Jackson Wald
Copywriting Intern
He/Him

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Form Relationships

Maya is a rising senior at Emerson College, studying visual marketing and design. Their passion for marketing bloomed when they took a commercial marketing class. She built a strong relationship with her professor, which turned into a mentorship. Maya acknowledges her mother’s wise words, “don’t ask, don’t get.” College is a space to grow and challenge your curiosity, “be courageous in class, make an effort to speak up and show up as your best self.” Seeking out a professor, mentor, or friend whose guidance you trust is helpful in the career journey. 

Maya Freeman
Strategy Intern
She/They

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Embrace Learning Opportunities

Emma is a rising senior at Boston University, studying Film, Television and Advertising. Prior to her current role at CP she worked in the paid social department in-house for SONY Music. She emphasizes that internships are a perfect way to learn about an industry that interests you. “Don’t be discouraged if you don’t have experience because an internship in advertising is attainable.” For those currently working in a marketing position or at an agency, there are learning opportunities everywhere. Keep an open mind and embrace every experience as an opportunity to grow. 

Emma Provost
Media Planning
She/Her

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Build A Strong Resume

Oceane is a rising senior at Suffolk University, studying Business Economics, Big Data and Business Analytics. She was most proud of presenting on the “deprecation of 3rd party cookies, which was the starting point and guide to creating a company POV on it” at CP this summer.  

Oceane affirms “having a solid resume is important and recommends working with career advisors to showcase skills that match the job description.” The advertising world intrigues her as she likes the “behind the scenes” aspect and appreciates the effort it takes to market a product or service.

Oceane Balya
Data and Analytics Intern
She/Her

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Take It All In

Jenny is a rising senior studying communications at Lasell University. She’s been drawn to production her entire life, as “it has a little bit of everything. I get to see all of the moving pieces come together to help people and collectively make something special and beneficial.” For those interested in production, it is helpful to have a basic understanding of what goes into a successful shoot, and how to edit videos and photos. Her biggest tip for incoming interns is to “take in as much as possible. You may not find your passion in advertising, but be observant and think outside the box and it just might lead you to what you love.”

Jennifer Frechette
Production Intern
She/Her

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An internship or any experience, whether it’s trying a new restaurant or traveling to a new place really is what you make of it. Remember the hardest part is showing up. Feed your inner creativity, lean on people you trust and question everything with intent.

If you’re someone who values empathy, ambition, integrity and curiosity join Connelly Partners and explore what it’s like to work in the advertising world. 

Best,

Anna

As a way to honour Mental Health Awareness Month, CPers from across the globe woke up before dawn on Saturday 6 May to take part in something really special.

Some joined local groups in pre-organised routes, others braved the dark and cold on their own, each with the same goal – to walk towards the dawn to help break the stigma around suicide and mental health.

The “Darkness Into Light” challenge has been going since 2009 and now convenes over 150,000 people in countless countries, helping to raise over €36 million ($40 million USD) for Pieta, a foundation which supports and serves those impacted by self-harm and suicide.

The message is simple – that there will always be a dawn, despite times when all you can see is the dark.

And although we were separated by physical distance, our team felt so together that morning as we supported this remarkable cause. Whether it was Killiney, Hawaii, Vancouver, Sandymount or Boston, we we collectively experienced such a powerful moment. It was a dawn we won’t forget easily.

And we’re already looking forward to next year.

At the end of each semester, we ask our interns to reflect on their experiences and learnings at CP. As they begin to wrap up their time here, our fantastic spring interns have left us with so many valuable insights. From networking with coworkers to getting a firsthand look at the industry, and mastering valuable time management skills, they’ve truly been crushing it. Here’s what our interns had to say.

Jasmine Francoeur, PR & Social Media
Suffolk University

I quickly fell in love with CP after meeting my team and getting a tour of our amazing office. Right away, I noticed how CP has such a great sense of community and family that feels very unique from other companies I’ve worked for in the past. While I love the work that I do, which mixed my two passions of PR and social media, it was truly the people who got me excited to come in! 

During my internship, I made it my goal to meet as many CPers as I could. I arranged coffee chats with people from different departments and learned so much about what they do and their experiences. During these chats, I realized how fascinating every department is and how they must all work together to help bring our clients success. It was truly eye-opening!

This internship has pushed me to grow in innumerable ways! It has further developed my critical and strategic thinking skills. I’ve also learned so much about the industry and the people behind it as well as how to use the latest technologies to help aid in our influencer searches. 

Hayes Hollar, People & Operations
Boston University

As someone who loves the idea of “go-go-go” in a professional and business sense and is a busybody to the core, I’ve always been attracted to the advertising industry. CP stood out to me because it’s a global company that touches so many different industries. Also, CP’s emphasis on the human experience, placing that at the core of its values as a company, makes it extremely attractive. With the hustle and bustle of advertising, putting people first is not always the case. 

The first thing I noticed at CP was how friendly and genuine everyone was, before even really getting to know them. This is the first time I’ve ever had an internship experience where a company prioritizes being in the office. I think that was extremely intimidating but I was immediately comforted by the warmth and friendliness of all of the people here. It’s unique to see a work culture where all the employees seem to be good friends rather than just friendly coworkers. I approached the internship and the people I met throughout it as an opportunity to learn, grow, and have fun. 

CP has given me a new perspective on the industry. There is always a way to strike a balance between the chaos of advertising and the well-being of the employees, who keep the company running, which is of the utmost importance. 

Nick Maumus, Media
Bentley University

From my initial conversations with CPers, I knew that this agency aligned strongly with my own personal values. For that reason, this internship was the best part of every day for my last semester of college. On top of having great interactions with coworkers, I worked on a variety of client and internal CP projects.

My greatest learning experience, however, was being given a glimpse into the real world. I had to quickly learn how to juggle a full course load of both undergraduate and graduate classes and the Bentley Honors program, on top of this internship. On a good day, my 90-minute commute to the office spanned driving, walking, and taking the subway. I would lose 6 hours each week on my commute alone, which challenged me to learn the valuable skill of time management. 

I worked hard every day to maximize my time and be as productive as possible, while also managing stress. I used every opportunity to learn, including my commute to the office. One piece of advice that I received from Steve Connelly was to put my phone down on the subway and just watch people because you can learn so much from simply observing. By doing this, I learned a great deal about peoples’ habits, behaviors, group interactions, and stressors. It was a very interesting exercise that I’ll continue to practice moving forward.

Charlie Kennedy, Analytics
Merrimack College

What struck me about CP is just how friendly and understanding everyone is. People know how to act with each other in a professional, fun environment, whether that be providing constructive criticism or celebrating a job well done. 

My internship taught me just how complex and multifaceted the advertising industry is. While working on the analytics team, I was fortunate to be exposed to various departments within the agency, particularly the media team. The role that they play in ensuring that ads reach the intended audience is intriguing to me. Media is definitely another avenue that I’d love to explore more. Additionally, I find the whole process of creating an ad to be quite interesting – from copywriting and art direction through production, it is truly amazing how so many people play a part in the process. 

While at CP, I had so many opportunities to learn. The greatest learning experience I have had, however, is learning to use Google Analytics in an efficient manner with actual clients. I also had the privilege of being able to meet and work alongside CPers from our Dublin office. 

Mia Harvey, Senior Brand Manager

The women of my family often communicate via food. Texts with my mom and emails with her mother are frequently interspersed with recipes, photos of what we’ve cooked, and interesting ingredients we’ve found. Cookbooks and spices are gifts. Food is celebratory, and certain menu items are long-held traditions – as we pass around overflowing plates and boxes of homemade baked goods, “food is love” is said to justify the process and pure quantity of food. 

Michelle Zauner incites self-reflection around the connective power between food, family, and identity in her memoir, Crying in H Mart. Chosen in celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, CP’s May Book Club selection explores Zauner’s relationship with her overbearing mother, Chongmi, and her experience growing up as a Korean American in Eugene, Oregon in a deeply personal memoir brought to life through dish after dish of traditional Korean meals.

“Food was how my mother expressed her love. No matter how critical or cruel she could seem—constantly pushing me to meet her intractable expectations—I could always feel her affection radiating from the lunches she packed and the meals she prepared for me just the way I liked them.”

When Chongmi is diagnosed with cancer, the interconnection between mother, daughter, and food causes Zauner to return to the culture and cuisine of her childhood. As she revisits the traditions and rituals she had so often been served by her mother and other female relatives, she reconnects with Chongmi and her Korean heritage. Zauner’s devastating and unfiltered telling of Chongmi’s slow death is documented alongside the meals she cooked, as she embraced her mother and hoped to heal her through the power of Korean dishes. Food binds Zauner to her mother, both before and after her death.

Zauner brings us into the intense, emotional experience following Chongmi’s death of continuing to connect to her Korean heritage, and as a result, finding herself. Her raw, unfiltered storytelling leaves us feeling the quiet, dark devastation felt after a loss. She continues to embrace food in an effort to prevent death’s theft of the memory of her mother and finds both connection and a new labyrinth of grief in the process of discovering and creating the meals introduced to her by Chongmi. 

“Sobbing near the dry goods, asking myself, am I even Korean anymore if there’s no one left to call and ask which brand of seaweed we used to buy?”

Throughout reading Crying in H Mart, I was constantly reminded of “food is love.” On top of the connection that food creates, it also allows us a glimpse into other cultures and stories. Crying in H Mart did all of the above, as well as serving as a poignant tribute to Zauner’s mother. A moving memoir of family, diasporic culture, and cuisine, Crying in H Mart is a tender exploration of the mother-daughter relationship and identity as a Korean American.

Lee Junkin, Platform Media SupervisorWhen I was in college, everyone used to say that if you can study abroad, you need to do it because you may never get the chance again. Well, as a 28-year-old adult, I was lucky enough to be provided with that opportunity a second time when Connelly Partners launched their CP Abroad program. So, in late February I set off for my month of working in Dublin – after making a quick pit stop in Chamonix, France to get a few days of skiing in as the winter began to fade away.

One of the things that struck me when I first arrived in the Dublin office is that my coworkers, who I had previously known almost entirely through Zoom and Slack, were so welcoming and passionate about sharing their culture. Almost immediately after being shown to my desk, I was hit with a flood of recommendations for restaurants, pubs (a lot of pubs), hikes, and any other experience in Ireland you can think of. It’s overwhelming to try to experience as much as you can in a new country in just a month, but with the help of my coworkers, I was able to make a pretty good plan for appreciating Dublin life. 

It being March, I was able to experience an Irish St. Patrick’s Day, which is a national holiday in Ireland. The parade was beautiful and the crowds were massive. People from all over the world poured into the streets wearing green hats and Guinness shirts. By the way, make sure you call it St. Paddy’s Day and not St. Patty’s Day – Americans often come over and use the more Anglicized spelling to the dismay of Irish residents. 

After St. Paddy’s, I explored the incredible Dingle Peninsula, driving over Conor Pass before eating seafood chowder with a Guinness in the quaint seaside Dingle pubs as Ireland beat England in the Six Nations rugby tournament. I also explored the beautiful Cliffs of Moher as well as Galway City.

Ireland may be an island, but plane fare in Europe is much different than in the U.S., making Dublin Airport a gateway to other cultures and languages just a few hours away. Over the course of a few weekends, I flew to Soria, Spain to reconnect with my host family from my college abroad experience, explored castles in Edinburgh and took a cruise on Lake Loch Ness, sipped coffee by the brightly painted houses in Copenhagen, and toured and learned about the complicated history of the city of Belfast.

Overall, I learned that while every culture has its slight differences – pronunciations and slang, cuisines, and lunch break standards (the Irish office is better at eating lunches together while Americans often eat at their desks) – there are many universal human truths that we all share. People everywhere are generally welcoming and excited to share pieces of their culture. People like to have fun and try new foods and keep eating the foods that they already love. Whether it’s baseball or Gaelic football, everyone loves to go to a game with their friends. The advertising industry certainly has some nuances across different countries (my position as a programmatic media buyer is not a big thing in Ireland), but in any culture, humans like to do the things they love, and part of our job as advertisers is to help humans enjoy those things.

CP Abroad provided me with a better understanding of my fellow humans and helped me grow as a person, but maybe more importantly, it was an incredibly fun experience that I will never forget.