About weelargyandy
15 years ago, I was a comfortable product of a very insular, sectarian and conflict scared society with a fear of everything different – a fear of the outside world. A lifelong friend I met on a family trip to France in 2001 pushed me out of my comfort zone and changed my life. From truly believing that people and places outside Northern Ireland were ‘too’ different, I started to realise that everywhere and everything is part of the same energy and that people outside my closed off community shared the same dreams and loved the same things as me. Mark Twain famously said that travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Travel is now my passion. Writing is my profession. I want to combine this and share it with everyone I meet. I still see versions of my former self in our post conflict society. I want to do what I can to celebrate and share diversity, inclusiveness and understanding of what is beautifully different. I’m now an unrepentant travel junkie, suffering from an uncontrollable wanderlust and a positive energy that I want to spread in every new place I see, and in every person I meet. Travel has changed my life and as a storyteller, I want to give back what travel has given me. Our world is full of hope, and hope is the one emotion you can take from no one, and spread in everyone. As a writer, this is how I know I can contribute to the world’s energy in a positive way.
