What a whirlwind these last few months of graduating from college and working through paperwork have been! But in a week and a half I will embark on the journey of a lifetime.
The goodbyes are weighing down on me as I leave behind so many family and friends, but I am also incredibly excited for the years to come. Yes, years. My official dates of service are August 2013-October 2015. Every time I see that number (2015) on paper two years becomes real and takes me by surprise. But on August 11th I will leave for Washington D.C. for orientation with the other 40 volunteers before catching an early flight to Nicaragua on August 14th. Once in Managua we will spend three days at an orientation retreat together. Then off we go to a different town for three months of technical, language, and cross-cultural training.
Uff da. What does all of this jargon mean? Exactly what the Peace Corps loves to tell us: No news is good news. I do not yet know where I will spend my official two years of service, but I look forward to jumping in!
To my family and friends I urge (even though it's hard I know), no news is good news. I am flying the nest cold turkey, as I told my mother. I don't know if this makes starting my life after college easier or harder, but I have decided to face this challenge as best I can. Many people have called me brave for choosing this path and maybe that is true. As Nelson Mandela once said, "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave (wo)man is he(or she) who does not feel afraid but he (or she) who conquers that fear." I am no less afraid of the unknown than anyone else, but I feel prepared to face that fear and start a new chapter in my life.
Though much of the next two years remains unknown, I can promise to try to share my experiences as much as possible, however often that is. Here's to 27 months of new experiences!
