The First Day of the Rest of My Life (Again)

When I was 18 I was blessed with the opportunity to take part in People to People International’s Peace Camp. As one of 50 others from around the world  my eyes were opened to cross cultural exchange,  hope of a better world one day, and the whole wide world at my fingertips. While I can give you plenty of information about what I did and who I met at Peace Camp I will just leave you with one key moment of it. Our ever so inspirational leader Barb who is a veteran PTPI leader sat all 50 young strangers down on the first day and said welcome to the first day of the rest of you life. None of us knew what she meant by that just yet but boy was she right. It was from Peace Camp that I knew the career path I wanted to take in international relations, having a great ability to promote cross-cultural exchange. I fell in love with the Arabic culture which inspired my undergraduate focus in Middle East politics. It is from all those experiences that I now find myself here, living in Sub Saharan Africa, speaking the local language, and teaching English as an official Peace Corps Volunteer.

            I was officially sworn in this past Thursday September 19^th at the hostel conference center where all 41 of us began our adventure together. Among those in attendance were the entirety of the Peace Corps Namibia staff, all of our future supervisors and/or counterparts, the Deputy Minister of Education, and the US Ambassador to Namibia. We heard various speeches about just how important the Peace Corps has been to the development of Namibia (Peace Corps presence was requested 7 days after independence), how we are now the elite of the elite of the citizens of the United States, and how our lives will never be the same. It was during this time that Barb’s words “Welcome to the Rest of Your Life” began ringing in my head over and over. I realized I will never wake up the same person I was waking up today, I am now part of an elite 200,000 other Peace Corps volunteers all over the world. This, along with 40 of my newest friends, was my new life.

            I took a picture with the Country Director and afterwards he asked me how I felt. Just like when returning from Peace Camp, I was at a loss for words. It was surreal, exciting, overwhelming, scary, sad, happy, everything. I was going to be moving to my new home in just a few short hours, leaving everything I have come to know (yet again) to enter into a community that needs me, fulfilling one of my life long dreams I have come to have in my short 22 years. I just couldn’t contain my emotions. I mean I almost cried like 5 times in a short 90 minute ceremony.  It was pathetic but gosh it was so cool to just sit back and take it all in that your dreams were coming true right before your eyes. I later joked around with another guy that now that I was sworn in I could go home tomorrow since I officially earned the title. But not really because I still have to tell everyone about the wonders of Schlip! Sorry for the lack of pictures, the internet is being really slow. Hopefully I will have them up soon!