New Adventures...and Old Friendships

Just an update - this morning, I officiallly accepted my invitation to be a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines, beginning in the middle of August. I am psyched. Today, I started to get nervous thinking of my life not being driven by school deadlines, papers, exams, professional projects, advisors, etc. What will I do without my color-coded calendar (it's true)? I hope they have highlighters in the Philippines, where I am still able to code "fun" as yellow, "volunteering" as blue (well, everything will be blue then), etc. My life has been driven by school for the last 19 years. It all started with those harsh deadlines in Kindergarten and has culminated in me being used to planning out the next 15 weeks of my life every January and September, when I sit down with my syllabi and write everything down. When assignments are flexible (meaning I can sign up for them for a certain date), I look at everything that I have going on for each week, and choose from there. That will no longer be an option. Beginning in August, my life will be driven by fantastic training and cultural immersion. After November, I'll be living in a community and working with an agency on whichever project the wind blows me to. Wow. Drastically different than right now. I love it. I love the idea. I love the fact that I will live in a climate that has an average yearly temperature of 75 degrees for two years and where I will have virtually unlimited access to my most beloved fruit, bananas. I love people and the world.

This all comes after a somewhat stressful day, but hey, there are things to look up to. Just yesterday, I was thinking "I haven't had a bad day in a while"...well, beginning this afternoon I found myself getting edgier and edgier. Don't worry - I'm alright. I did have the chance this morning to meet with an amazing woman who runs a children's shelter here in Missoula. She came and spoke to our non-profit class a few weeks ago, and Linday and I were captivated. Fortunately, she agreed to meet with us today and just discuss her life and her challenges that she faces everyday. We talked about everything from being a woman in a male-dominated role, fundraising, relationship building, balancing family life, etc. She is the president of the Missoula rotary club, which has an average age of 60 years old and is dominated by males. She is an energetic 38-year-old woman who has her stuff together. So that set the day out right. Then, we all met for lunch (the cohort) at Food for Thought to kind of have a "good-bye" lunch before spring break. Kendra left tonight for Seattle and then will fly to Spain on Friday, where she will be for two weeks. Because we all realize that the semester is dwindling down, we know that time is precious. Once May is here, people will be dispersing or staying. It is sad - and I am trying to imagine my life without my social support system that I've had for the last 7 months. Craziness that I just met all of these wonderful people 8 months ago. It feels like it was yesterday. Ahh, time for new adventures and the celebration of old friendships and loving family members.

Good night all.