September 17th 2010 Philly Staging
Well, here it is my first post. I may be able to turn into a tech savvy person after all…but always the procrastinator I have put off setting this up until tonight. I am in the bussiness center at the Philly Holiday Inn. It is now 2am and I have to report for my yellow fever shot in five hours, and then fly off to Africa! I am excited. I cannot sleep and feel the need to cram as much stateside activities in before they will be unavailable (such as high speed internet usage, mailing last minute goodbyes, pizza and beer…). I will deeply miss all of my family, friends, pets and books and I am sure many things that I am not thinking of yet. Not to mention beautiful Colorado!
Today was exciting and relieving and unnerving all at once. It was great to finally be an official Peace Corps trainee and no longer an applicant. All my paperwork is submitted, my bags are packed and I’m leavin’ on a jet plane tomorrow (yipe!) It is so nice to finally meet the people I will be working with for the next 27 months, there was a lot of fun and bonding tonight and we are all made of the same fabric, which is exhilirating to finally be surrounded with people who understand what all this madness is all about. It is a beautiful thing, how fast you can connect with people when you already have so much in common that is inherently understood; plus the cammraderie of the unknown, of the potential hardship we will endure and adjust to together. As our facilitator said, we are now a family within the larger family of the Peace Corps, and will be for a lifetime.
No more justifications, just exuberance and nerves. I am highly excited and nervous about the next step…Africa. We will see, if nothing else it will be the adventure of a lifetime and hopefully open new avenues for me not only in my life and my career but in my mind.