Have you ever looked around and thought "how did I get here?" Welcome to my life right now.
As I've been announcing my impending departure to friends and family, I've been asked a few times why I picked the Peace Corps. I know some are genuinely curious, but I could swear a few of them meant to ask why in the world I picked something that will have me on the other side of the world for 27 months. It's a fair question, so I thought I'd talk about it.
I'm ready for the adventure and ready for the challenge. After graduating with a Political Science degree and working in Financial Services for a year and a half, I feel really ready for the next adventure and the next challenge in my life. I feel like Thrivent prepared me so well for whatever the Peace Corps will throw at me - but I also was feeling that my soul needed to not be at a desk. As I thought about my next step, I applied to a few places where I thought to myself, "If they accept me, I'll go." So, here I go.
It's a small start in giving back. I know that I'm not going to change the world - and other volunteers have advised against having high hopes around the difference you'll make. I hope to build relationships, use my skills to benefit my community, and leave even the slightest of impact on wherever I'm placed. It's a small step towards changing the world, but it's a start.
Peace Corps has always been a dream. After I studied abroad in 2015, my eyes were opened to the fact that I live in a diverse and beautiful world - of which I've only seen and experienced a fraction. I knew I wanted to live abroad for some substantial period of time to learn the culture, speak the language, and have lifelong friendships in a spot on our planet different from my own. Peace Corps has an incredible program that would allow me to accomplish all of that and more.
Why not? When I got the email that I was accepted, I had three days to respond. I spent the next three days meeting with mentors, taking with my mom, and hearing from past Peace Corps Volunteers. My heart was telling me to go, but my brain wanted more input. Again and again, women whose advice I hold in high esteem would say some variation of the phrase, "If not now, when?" My motto since then has been that I can't not do things just because they're scary. The only reason I wouldn't go is because 27 months is a long time, and I'm afraid of the unknown. But that's no reason not to go - and if not now, when?
I've been telling people that I'm 80% pumped and 20% wildly terrified. On any given day, those percentages can completely flip-flop. Home is comfortable, I'll be leaving behind people I love, but I am going anyway.
I think I'd regret it forever if I didn't go. So here goes nothing. And here goes everything.
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