My Dip into the Rocky Highlands
By Helene Horan
Class of 2027, Rutgers Business School & School of Arts and Sciences, Member of the Honors College
I balanced the pile of books in my arms precariously as I added another, this one was titled Irish Fairy Tales, Myths & Legends. Should I put something back? No, I had already kept the stack confined to the non-negotiables: a book by an author I’d meet later that week, two with cover variants exclusive to Europe, and another I had found in the section dedicated exclusively to children’s books written by Irish writers. It’s not my fault that there are literally one million books to choose from at this store; buying five, six, or even seven books would be conservative in the grand scheme of things.
This was my thought process inside Kenny’s, the largest independent bookstore in Ireland, the best of the many bookstores I visited during my two-week study abroad trip in the summer of 2025. During the spring semester of my sophomore year, I took my first creative writing class and fell in love with the subject. I instantly added my creative writing minor to my programs of study and began taking one class per semester towards my minor.
I have often thought to myself that I am down for any experience that will help me grow as a writer. While others may complain about “absurd” writing assignments like describing an object without using adjectives, I am excited to try them, even when it’s hard. So when I heard about Professor Alexander Dawson’s trip, Where Dips the Rocky Highland, two weeks of studying fairy tales and folklore in Ireland, I was set. Before I was a writer, my first love was (and still is) reading, especially fairy tales. This was the most perfectly “me” trip I could imagine. Not only that, but there were events with more than ten authors on the itinerary, including a talk featuring Patricia Forde, author of one of my favorite books, The List.
The itinerary was loaded with events and experiences, including an opening ceremony with Booker Prize-winning author Roddy Doyle and hiking the Cliffs of Moher (the Cliffs of Insanity, for my fellow Princess Bride fans). We would end with the Discover Irish Children’s Books Symposium, which featured over twenty authors, editors, and publishers. My favorite day was, of course, meeting Patricia Forde at Kenny’s. It is in a bookstore that I always feel closest to home, even when I am an ocean away from my family. And Irish bookstores are perfect—every single one I visited prominently featured a section dedicated to their national authors. The pride they take in their literary heritage is unique to Ireland, and those sections were my favorite to visit.
The Honors College was integral to my ability to attend this trip. The wealth of resources that we have as honors students is extensive, and I cannot express enough how important it is to explore the opportunities offered by such a community. The Honors College had a special fund for the summer of 2025 dedicated to study abroad experiences. A quarter of my trip was covered by an Honors College scholarship—I couldn’t have gone if they hadn’t financially enabled me. Not only that, but this trip was important to me as it helped me launch my HC Capstone Project. Because at its essence, the Capstone shouldn’t be some academic hurdle looming over your college years—it should be an exploration and extension of something you love. And while I’ve known that I want mine to be an English Honors Thesis, finding a topic was really hard. Finally, I know that I want to write a creative piece as my Capstone.
(Me presenting my creative writing piece at Dublin City University.)
Writing fiction at length isn’t easy. To have it published can be even harder. Many of the authors we heard from during the trip spoke about how they wrote many novels before one was finally chosen by a publisher. But this trip just deepened my love for the craft and provided me with valuable advice from Ireland’s leading experts. The best cure for writer’s block? Reading. How do you finish a first draft? Stop editing and just write, write, write.
I miss Murphy’s Sea Salt Ice Cream and the widespread availability of beef and Guinness stew. I miss Kenny’s, and I miss hearing from a different author every night. I miss the local yarn shop where I bought 100% Irish wool yarn for my crochet projects, and I miss Inishmore, where I found the perfect blue Aran sweater. But all the missing doesn’t make me sad, it makes me happy that I went, and eager to go again. My mother was not pleased to see me return with thirteen new books in my suitcase, but that’s how you know I had the best time when I was studying abroad.