A New Chapter…

Well I have news everyone! For those of you who have not heard I have a large life change coming up. After pursuing it for past year and a half I have been accepted to the Peace Corps! I will be leaving for Romania on May 15^th, and will spend the next 2 ½ years there. Quite a change I know…it is one I am excited about and yet at the same time completely freaked out about.

This is also the start of something else for me, a new way of communicating. I have committed to keeping in touch, and keeping a journal of this new adventure. So here it goes…

After telling anyone about this decision a number of questions inevitably come up, I will do my best to address them here.

So what made you decide to go into the Peace Corps?

Good question, I have been asking myself that a lot lately. This whole adventure started about a year and half ago and the idea was hatched when a number of different things all came together in my life at the same time. Work was changing; I was changing departments for the third time, and questioning what exactly I wanted to do with my life. (I still haven’t figured that question out, but I am working on it.) I began to feel the need for a change, a new challenge, a new adventure.

Around the same time, a horrific world disaster took place in the form of the Tsunamis that hit Indonesia, Sir Lanka, India and Thailand. I wanted to do something to help, so I started looking into agencies that were operating there in the wake of the disaster. I soon found however that due to operation methods these organizations were just requesting money, and were not able to send volunteers over at the time.

At the same I was also thinking of going back to school, so I took the LSAT and started applying to Law schools. It was during this time that I came across another kind of opportunity…the Peace Corps. When I 1^st heard that the commitment was two years I wrote it off, and decided to pursue school instead. Something about the application process halted my efforts though, no matter how much I thought about it I just couldn’t come up with decent way of expressing what I wanted to say. The Peace Corps application on the other hand was a breeze! That was the first little sign to me that I was starting to head in the right direction. I believe God speaks to us in the subtly of life. That faint whisper does exist when we know how to look for it, listen to it. There have been more indications like that along the way, but I can save that for another time.

In short (I know too late for that…) I have wanted a change for a really long time. I did not know what it was at first, but this little adventure of just getting into the PC has shown me that I am making the right move. I am really excited about it, and yet totally freaked out at the same time. The unknown can be a scary thing, but I am confident I am heading in the right direction at this time.

What will you be doing in Romania?

Well, I can halfway answer that. The Peace Corps has been a serious of steps. You find out what you need to know, when you need to know it. What I know so far is that I will be a business director whose main task is to help improve economic conditions in the country. I may be working with a NGO (Non-governmental Organization) with a focus on economic development. I may be working with a mayor’s office or directly with business owners and entrepreneurs doing grass roots business development. I will find out exactly what I will be doing about halfway through my training period which will be by June or July of this year. I will let know what I find out.

Where will you be?

I know where I will be to start. I will be traveling from Fort Worth to Philadelphia on May 15^th. I will be in Philly for 3 days and on May 18^th I will hop on a plane with 72 other Peace Corps Volunteers and travel to Ploiesti. I will be there for about 3 months living with a host family. My task during this time will simply be to learn the language and a new culture. This is when the fun will begin.