Life in America

First Thoughts

Thomasena's first reactions to America, in Tennessee in 1998, was how different the infrastructure was here. When speaking about her first time on an American highway, Thomasena stated " When we left the airport and got on the the Interstate, we were struck by the sheer size of everything. There was like a five lane Interstate and I had never seen anything like that before. Our taxi driver drove like a maniac and it was pretty terrifying." Many of Thomasena's first thoughts on what it was like in America revolved around how spread-out out everything was. She noticed Knoxville felt a lot more "industrial" and "corporate" with all the big office buildings, businesses and strip malls. This was very different from what she was used to back in Ireland where the architecture was more interesting and familiar.

However in Boston, Thomasena felt more at home as it has an old European city feeling, which is similar to Dublin with its narrow streets and old buildings. Another thing about Boston that appealed to her is the large population of Irish people. When she first moved here she met a few people and formed friendships with them, and says the reason they get along so easily was due to how "we share a sort of common experience in how we all grew up in Ireland and moved here."

Job

Worked at Bridgewater State University since 2012, was promoted to Professor in April of 2022.