I suppose I should have started blogging about my Peace Corps experience from the beginning, or at least when things started getting exciting. Maybe I should recap what has happened thus far: a very long process lasting nearly sixteen months. And let me tell you, things didn't start getting interesting until the past few months.
After graduating from the University of Michigan in May with a BA in Spanish, I stayed in my house with five other Glee Clubbers and enjoyed Ann Arbor to its fullest. While in Ann Arbor (and also for a while after I'd moved back home), I performed with Ann Arbor Civic Theatre in a performance of Avenue Q. I played Princeton and had the time of my life. After that I jumped around, trying my best to find volunteer work to suit my needs and help me gain some experience with teaching English to "potentially high school aged students." I put that in quotations and sought out those opportunities because the Placement Officer encouraged me to seek out more experiences in order to become a more competitive candidate. I rolled my eyes because it was a bit off-putting after all this time, but I decided to be proactive. I started volunteering with the International Institute of Metro-Detroit until I got a job as an ESL parapro at Abbott Middle School, where I am currently working as both a parapro and a substitute teacher. I could write for days about my experiences there, so suffice it to say it's been real. Truly eye-opening.
However, I should mention something quite awesome. I received my fat packet from the Peace Corps on Opening Night of the show, Thursday, September 15, 2011. After fourteen months of toil with the Peace Corps, long applications and begging for recommendations and getting shots and having blood drawn and waiting for them to get back to me, I was finally in the know. Panama. Teaching English. Leaving January 2012.
Things have started coming in much more frequently now: Welcome Books, packets outlining basic information about the country (vague, but mildly helpful), information about the staging event in Miami, itineraries of the first week, PDFs about safety (that basically tell volunteers to avoid situations where they might be victimized or targeted), and so on. A lot started coming at me very quickly, but it has never really been what I'm seeking, what I want to read about. I have done my best to get in touch with people to get the best advice (namely current or former volunteers) and have done so with mild success, but in the end, I'm on my own. Whatever I think is best is ultimately the best choice.
I've been very preoccupied lately with the future: what to bring, what to leave behind, the people I'm leaving behind, all that... It didn't really feel real until about last week, when the countdown was down to mere weeks. Now, it's less than a month away. And to be quite honest, I'm scared. Excited, but scared. But as I told my Dad truthfully when we discussed why I was doing this, I am motivated by fear: driven to overcome by facing it head on.
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