Skip to main content

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" - Mary Oliver

Welcome and thank you for checking out my blog.  I am excited to share my Peace Corps journey with you all!  

When I tell people that I'm going to serve in the Peace Corps, there is usually an initial reaction of "that's really great" followed by something along the lines of "and at your age!"  It's true--I am in definitely in the minority in terms of age when it comes to volunteers--only about 7% of volunteers are over 50.  Serving was something that I wanted to do after college, but for several reasons, the time wasn't right.  Fast forward a couple decades and I find myself called to service and in a place personally and professionally where I am able to answer the call.  

So in just a couple months, I'll pack everything into a storage unit and move to the Eastern Caribbean for twenty-seven months.  I'll be serving as an English literacy resource volunteer in a primary school.  

Watch this space--my goal is to share my experiences with you--from the chaos pre-departure through the adventure!  

Comments

  1. What a life-changing decision. Cannot wait to see how this unfolds. Thanks for allowing us to come along! Also…love the title of your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So excited to follow this blog and learn from all you adventures! Go girl!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. So happy for you as you start this new adventure. Thank you for setting up this blog so that we can follow you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. So proud of you. Brave and strong. Sure you will be successful. Love ya.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for sharing your experience and journey. Love and peace to you

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible" -Thich Nhat Hanh

 I have been thinking a lot about impermanence over the last couple of weeks.   Buddhist teachers like Thich Nhat Hanh remind us that its our want for things to be permanent that makes us suffer, not impermanence.   The semester came to a close last week.  The last couple weeks were an even more hectic end-of-the-semester push than usual; in addition to finishing up my 3 classes, I was also trying to pick away at the packing and work my way through the online work/courses for the Peace Corps.  Fun fact: hurricane season starts today!   It has also been a time filled with saying goodbye.  And while I plan on returning to this place after my service, last week the impermanence of everything hit me like a ton of bricks (on multiple occasions, lol).  But here's the funny thing about impermanence--those feelings of sadness and loss are also impermanent.  I have been filled with gratitude for my mindfulness practices that have helped me stay in the present moment and truly live in the ex

"Ask for help. Not because you are weak. But because you want to remain strong." - Les Brown

 I've said before how I intend for this blog to be a place where I share the whole of my experience rather than just giving you the Instagram stories.  The reality of life--any life--is that it is not all (or even mostly) sunshine and rainbows.  And while I have had a lot of incredible, amazing, and joyful experiences since moving to St. Lucia, there are a lot of things that are not any of those.   This second term of school has been really hard for a variety of reasons.  While I'm committed to being open, honest, and transparent in this space, there are things that I just can't share here in any detail.  I can paint with broad strokes and say that the amount of secondary trauma I'm experiencing at school has increased significantly.  Initially, I think I was managing quite well.  As a college professor, I've dealt with secondary trauma for some time.  However, the key difference is that those students were adults--and it took me a long time to figure out how to man

"This wasn't a strange place; it was a new one" -Paulo Coehlo

 Thanks again to everyone who submitted questions.  A couple notes about this video: 1) my voice is a bit scratchy and crackly because there was burning happening when I recorded and the smoke messes with my voice 2) In some of the slides, it sounds like a teapot is whistling--my apologies that was the fan getting picked up by my headphones (its not too loud, I promise) 3) In the slide following my intro, I state that the "ministry of health" was involved when I meant to say "ministry of education" (the error is actually quite obvious, lol)