March 17th.

My favorite day of the whole year.

Yes, I am Irish and quite proud of it.

I remember St. Patrick's Day to be a celebration of that.

Our house would be decorated accordingly.

All of us would wear these shirts:

Mom would make us green pancakes for breakfast and clover shaped sandwiches for lunch.

Then, came dinner.

Oh, St. Paddy's Day dinner.

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This magically became...

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Pasties. 

Not to be confused with pasty (pay-stee) which coincidently describes the skin tone of us Irish folk.

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Lamb and Guinness Stew.

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Irish Soda Bread.

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These are the things that I love about this holiday. 

Celebrating our heritage with my family,

and responsibly enjoying a Guinness or two..

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Unfortunately, St. Patrick's Day in college looks nothing like that. The local bars are packed to capacity at 7:00am and classrooms are relatively empty. Apparently my favorite holiday has become an excuse to get hammered drunk all day long, as the Irish do. Well, when non-Irish kids drink that much, it usually isn't pretty.  I didn't celebrate the holiday today, because how could I? I don't binge drink, or drink at all really...I live in a dorm and can't cook up the usual meals, and my family isn't here. I remembered  an old blog post that I wrote last year, feeling the same discontent with the day's activities. I guess if I can't celebrate it right, I just don't celebrate at all. Well, maybe next year!

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Erin Go Bragh!