“As for believing things, I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible.” – Oscar Wilde

Well, I couldn’t believe it. I still can’t believe it. My belief is suspended on a wire made of gossamer and fancy. 

In about a week’s time, I’ll be whisking myself away from the industrial and bustling city of Boston, Massachusetts, to the Wild Irish West. It’s the echo of a daydream; the ghost of an attempt made months ago come back to life. Resurrected and rekindled by the chance of possibility, I am going to tour the places my people came from years before.

You may remember me as the third-placer from a contest not too long ago. I wear my Wild Geese T-shirt with pride [and a flannel for extra fashion], and believed that a great achievement (as with most, if not all writers, placing anywhere in a contest is considered a phenomenal ego boost). I was content to drink coffee on lazy Sunday mornings wearing my earnings and feeling quietly triumphant, having accepted Ireland was off the table for me as a journey I could take at 25.

As it turns out, it was—I’m 26 when I’m setting forth on this expedition.

The universe had shifted to give me room—specifically, a place on a tour [the Pilgrimage, to be exact] that had prior not been open. Michael reached out to me to let me know the winner of the drawing for a tour at Cherish the Ladies [the tour’s 5-year celebration] was unable to make it, and as I was a runner up in a contest prior, he would like for me to come along. I, being who I am, had to pinch myself to make sure this wasn’t a case of a wildly imaginative hallucination. It wasn’t, and so, I booked a ticket post-haste.

Which brings me now to you all. It’s been a while since I posted with this lovely community. I follow it from my phone, but am shy to interject with my own thoughts a lot of the time—that and work has been keeping me on my toes. Well, now I feel I have even more of a reason to jump back into the fray here at The Wild Geese. I would love to provide you all with my experiences on this tour, rolling back the misty veils of distance and technology to offer you a window into the emerald unknown. I’ll be popping in on a daily basis while on the tour to give you all insight into just what this tour entails, from photos to reflective thoughts in the form of prose and poetry alike.

Quite literally, this is a dream come true to me, one I’d like to share with this group of adventurers and philosophers.

Sojourning with you soon!

-- Nicole “Sam” Fishkind.

[Pictured: a certain shirt flying back across the great salt pond...]