Seán: A History of Me

12:16, April 18th, 2009

I've always struggled with the idea that those around me don't really know me. Taking that my oldest fried, Simon, is a guy I met while in secondary school (sometime around third year) no-one really knows anything about me before the age of fifteen. Here then, is a brief history of me.

Early Life
I'm pretty sure that everyone knows I grew up in Drogheda though both my parent worked while I was young (mum did give it up until the end of primary school though) so I spent a lot of time in both my gran's (The Mount) and in my nan's (Mornington.) As a result I was pretty close to most of my family growing up.

When I was about 5 or 6 (I'm guessing because I remember talking to a guy about it in third class and thinking 'well this happened a year or so ago'; I was 7/8 in third class) my sister stabbed me with the handle of a broken mug. I still have the scar on the back of my hand to prove it although it is becoming less defined as the years pass.

As I said above, I was close to all my grandparents (barring my late Grandfather who died when I was less than a year old [May he rest in peace]) and some of my earliest memories are of picnics in both houses, though time spent in my gran's are clearer. I do, however, remember collecting golfballs with my grandad and playing football in their garden.


Friends
Friends come and go should probably be my motto. Early on in primary school my best friend was a guy called Eoin. We lived next door to each other so he and his sister, Aisling, were regulars in my life. At the end of primary school his family moved but by that point I'd begun to hang around with Gary and to a lesser extent Colin and Brian. Gary now lives in Spain while I rarely ever see Colin or Brian anymore even though they live up the road from me.

As I said already, I met Simon in secondary school and he's largely responsible for introducing me to books, or more speciffically to the Fantasy genre. I remember reading The Hobbit in fourth class of primary school but when I developed my love of computer games, reading went out the window.

College and work brought new friendships after secondary school and to date I do still talk to Hugh (Work), Phil (Social), Stephen (Work), Brian (Work), Sarah (Work/Social) Christine (Work) and Vivienne (College) though I don't see Vivienne as much as I used too. Unfortunately work constrains the time I see most of them and I'm limited to once a week (if even) with friends.


Girls
I've come to terms with the fact that I'm very naive when it comes to girls. The first girl I had a 'crush' on, if you could even call it that, was Angela when I was about ten. The first girl I kissed was Sarah (not the one mentioned above) while my first proper girlfriend was probably Emma who I was with for over a year and a half. All my other relationships lasted about a month with my last tipping the scales at a month and a half.

For some reason I always come out of these relationships feeling like shit, especially those with Tara and Christine because they ended so unexpectadly (to me anyway.) As a result of these girls I've been dumped by phone twice and by their friend twice; perhaps that's where things got messy for me.


Education
I'd love to say I was the model student but truth be told I floated through the education system until the last year of college when it hit me that I should probably do something with my life. I got 300 points in the Leaving Cert (exactly 50%) and went on to do a general arts degree in Dublin Business School achieving a grade of 2ii though picking up a first in my end of course project/thesis which really showed how much I'd improved over the course of the final year.


Future
I've recently applied to Dublin Business School to continue my study with an MA in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and currently work for Dunnes Stores. I'm now 22 and I can't help but feel that I should have done more with my life. Hopefully putting this in writing will help me do just that.

Seán