The NaTuRe oF the BeAst…

When I was working at Midnight Rodeo waiting to leave for Mongolia I had a customer that said to me one not so busy shift, “the Peace Corps is like the military, except without guns”. I never quite knew what he meant until my service effectively commenced.  We all signed up for the Peace Corps in hopes of making a difference.  They tell you to get your affairs in order on the home front and to prepare yourself for a 27 month commitment.  So you do. You tell your significant other you will work somehow, someway.  You visit your family one last time because let’s be honest, a 2000 dollar plane ride back to the states is probably not going to happen, and you head on your merry way. If someone has passed away before you left, chances are; like me you won’t be there to send them on their way to the pearly gates.  A month passes, perhaps two and your relationship with your significant other, if you’re lucky stays strong, and if not, starts to completely fail. Give it another month and if it was failing, it completely failed now and if you are lucky your stuff has at least been returned to a parent or friend so it’s not on the streets or in a garbage bin.  Another month or so and you have effectively finished and graduated from training YEAH! You get to your site and start making those moves. Yep…anytime now. You’ve been trained, and you’re rearing to go!  In my case, you fly to Thailand to find out you need pinky PT but probably won’t need surgery so that is fabulous. Then you find out another relative (in my case my Uncle) has passed and you will be missing that burial as well. This is the Nature of the Beast. The ability to hold your head high and go with the flow while a (excuse the language) shit storm unfolds around you is the only thing you can do.  Signing up for the Peace Corps was not easy. You sign your life away to them for the next two years in hopes that whatever you end up doing while you are a PCV outweighs what is happening on the home front.   So, next time you are feeling low. Take a deep breath…count to ten and remember that there are other’s just like you, going through similar hurdles. Scream into your pillow, shed a few tears and pick yourself up.  There is always something to smile about.