What I expect from Peace Corps and beyond
I came across this blog post today when I was browsing the Peace Corp Journals website (http://waidsworld.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/the-real-peace-corps/). Someone from my Moldova group posted it in their blog post. It is a nice description about what life in the Peace Corps is actually like, and is really what I already expect. I think it is brilliantly written.
I entertain no illusions that my next 2 years are going to be a walk in the park. In fact, I expect it to be one of the, if not the, hardest thing I will ever do in my life. I expect to experience some of the highest highs and the lowest lows that I could ever possibly imagine, but I know that with the right attitude that this will benefit myself, the Peace Corps, and the host country. As JFK said about traveling to the moon, “we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”. Coincidentally, JFK is also the President who created the Peace Corps. I am not pursuing an easy life, that is not what I want. People with easy lives get bored, they cheat on their wives, they create problems that don’t exist, they need to seek action, etc etc. Of course these are generalizations, people with stressful lives do these things too.
I want to live a meaningful life where I will be leaving the world a better place than it was when I entered. And I know that will require all my life and energy to even work towards, let alone accomplish. I don’t want an easy life where I live comfortably and work to live. I just can’t do that. Its not for me. I can’t have a 9-5 job where I can’t wait for the day to end. I need a meaningful career. I need substance. I need dreams, ambitions, and a calling. It almost sounds as if I am seeking religion, which may be why people turn to religion to fulfill these things. I would rather live these things. My Peace Corps experience I expect to help me on this journey, by providing these things and furthering my career with the invaluable experience I will accumulate.
I want to live like a Jedi. “Adventure. Excitement. A Jedi craves not these things.” A Jedi doesn’t crave these things because he lives them. They are the norm. He is living the life that fulfills him
Viața Mea: Cu Capul în Nori 