Are you Excited?
I like to watch people’s reaction when I tell them about my plan to join the Peace Corps. If they are American, they have usually heard about it and their reaction includes a sense of wonderment. If they are from another country, I usually go into an explanation about what it is.
The next question is usually “When do you leave?”
When I said September 2014 back in December 2013 I always felt a twinge of anxiety because the date felt so far away and I wasn’t sure what to do with myself in the meantime. Now, I feel better about saying the date. It seems like most people think that you can join the Peace Corps and leave the next month. In reality, it usually takes much longer. I started my application February 2012.
Next question: “How long will you be gone?”
The answer of 27 months is usually followed by one of two reactions. Either, “Oh my gosh…that’s such a long time!” Or, “Ya, that sounds about right. You might want to stay longer.”
I feel like those people who have maybe done something similar, or traveled the world tend to think that it is not a super long period of time. Many of the people who are surprised at how long I will be abroad might not think that two years is a crazy amount of time, just a crazy amount of time to be living in a third world country away from family and friends. I use the word “crazy” in a good way here. I have learned to embrace that words like “crazy” are simply a reflection of the person’s perspective. What is “crazy” to one person could be completely normal and valid to someone else so the word alone holds no ultimate truth as a state of being.
The next question seems to come up quite often as well…
“Are you excited?”
“Ya, I guess. I’m pretty excited…but that’s just part of it really.”
I sometimes compare emotions to drinking wine. There is the flavor that you first taste, followed by the body, and ending with a finishing taste. Many flavors can be tasted within seconds and it’s sometimes hard to separate them out and define them. If thinking about my Peace Corps plans was like drinking a glass of wine I would probably first taste a feeling of openness. The kind of feeling you get when your friend might take you somewhere that they say is really awesome, but you have never been there before so you go because you trust your friend.
The next flavor of feeling is one of fear. Now fear gets a bad rap sometimes. To me fear is a mechanism of my reptilian mind that simply means I need to call attention inward and evaluate a situation. Being a feeler more than a thinker, this sometimes involves interacting with the fearful thing as part of my evaluation. After internalizing a situation, I am able to decide whether to proceed or not. Once I have made my choice I tend to be pretty stubborn and relentless in my pursuit. It has worked well for me so far and although I am glad I have fear, I try to stay open minded enough to let in different ways of thinking about things.
“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.”
The next taste would be one of love. The word love can have so many meanings, but in this sense it means acceptance, respect, and reverence. It also includes self love. Although I have not met the family I will be living with I already love them. I have accepted them and respect their culture and values. I expect there to be rules that I will need to follow that my feminist side may have trouble with, but I have made the choice to integrate into their lifestyle, so I will. I love the people of Nepal for simply allowing me to be there and spend time with them. It is a huge honor to be invited into someone’s home for two years and I lam grateful for the opportunity.
The taste of love would probably be mixed with a sense of empowerment. Eventually, I hope to be able to give back to my community by creating a ripple effect of educating people about nutrition, health and sanitation. The projects I will focus on first will be the ones of most concern to the people in my community because those are the ones that will succeed.
In the words of Henry Ford:
“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”
Only after tasting the initial flavors of this glass of wine would I arrive at the finishing taste of excitement. Excitement, however, can be over-bearing and just a little is enough to make the overall amplitude of flavor just right. Too much and I would miss out on what is right in front of me. It’s there, but the other flavors keep it in check allowing for an overall colorful, dynamic tasting glass of Peace Corps preparation and visualizing.
Here’s to the moment. Cheers!
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