One quiet evening, sunk into the corner of a soft couch with the fire throwing little gold flickers across the room, I was doing the usual—aimlessly scrolling through social media—when a small announcement stopped me in my tracks: The James Joyce Centre was offering a course on A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man . Intriguing. Impulsive click. It felt like an invitation. I clicked. I signed up. And just like that, six weeks of Joyce, Dublin, and Dedalus awaited me. What