Greetings from Ishpeming, Michigan.... from whence I come.
It has been a long trek home, but 100% worth it to have my parents, my sister, and I under the same roof for the first time in two years. I flew to Pittsburgh Monday and spent two days driving home with my sister. I'm so very lucky to be home this year, but can't help but think of what next Christmas will be like.
As you have no doubt guessed from my previous posts, I had serious doubts about continuing to pursue my Peace Corps dream. After many conversations with good friends and many restless nights, I have decided to keep on. I am hoping to hear about placement very soon. I got an e-mail from the placement office in D.C. several weeks back asking that I send my transcripts ASAP after my master's degree posts and to send a résumé. Hopefully I will hear soon. I think it's the not knowing where you'll be living in six months that is most stressful.
Explaining the Peace Corps and why you want to do it is increasingly difficult. I know that I'm getting a highly specialized degree that I won't be using (directly anyway) for a couple of years. I know that I could probably get into a good PhD program. I know that I could get a nice cushy teaching job in the suburbs somewhere. So what. Life is too short and I've pushed myself too hard and I'm too tired. I think if I take another teaching job that I'll end up leaving choral music sooner than later. Two years doing something different will be refreshing.
I also don't have silly illusions that joining the Peace Corps and living in a mud hut will fix all my problems.... or that I'll magically find myself. I do know that there is something about the African sense of community that I need to learn. Something about the transparency with which Africans relate that I want to absorb. Something about living life day to day that I want to know.
So I proceed. But first, I will enjoy this day playing cards and eating with my family. I know that the next Christmas like this I have will be very different.
Happy Holidays, all. May we all find what we seek in 2011.
