August 3rd - COMPLETING THE CIRCLE

School is officially over and it was put to a close with a dispidida (going away) lunch with my co-workers. My secondary projects are all wrapped up and the last of the books and study guides are being distributed. I’ve given away most of my belongings, and packed up the stuff to send home or to bring with me. In my need to be completely organized, I’ve even taken the decorations off my walls and scrubbed the apartment clean. The only problem is that I still have a month before leaving. In exactly one month from today, Dacia, Leah, and I will be landing in Senegal to begin our four month trek through Africa. I blame my Mom on my obsessive need to organize and straighten up, but I guess these habits aren’t the worst that one can pick up from parents, right?

I am back to Assomada to help out with PST 2010. It’s fitting to be back in Assomada during my last month as it completes the full circle of my life in Peace Corps. One group leaves, and another group comes in. Coming up in the hiace to Assomada I couldn’t help but to remember how fascinated I was by everything when we first arrived, whereas now everything just seems absolutely normal. I’m glad I did Peace Corps and I’m proud that I completed my commitment. I think overall I worked hard (and whereas I sometimes play hard, I always try to balance it by working that much harder) and I’m proud of my work and the projects I’ve done here.

Living here has made me more sure of what I want to do in the future. Although there are still plenty of choices to make (east coast or west coast or in-between, back to teaching or apply in another field, grad school right away or wait a year), I’m ready to face whatever comes next. First up is our grand tour. Even I can’t really believe I’m going to do it, but my mind is made up. As much as it kills me to know how much my parents will worry (it sucks to be so loved), as usual I’m going to be selfish. For as long as I can remember I’ve always worked and gone directly from one thing to the next. HS to college to grad school to teaching to Peace Corps, all while working two jobs. Students and teachers may have summers off, but I don’t remember ever taking one off. Now I’m cashing in my personal I.O.U’s and I’m taking four months to just travel.

I expect to be home around Christmas and then I’ll start the mad rush to apply to programs and jobs. I finally had a revelation as far as what I want to do in life (at least for now) and I’ve decided to apply for literacy programs so that I can become a reading specialist. Education is important, but literacy is the backbone of education. I’ve become increasingly interested in literacy since living here and I can’t wait to get back to school. Of course I’ll be trying to find a job as a well and I’m thinking more and more about applying to work for Peace Corps as a recruiter.

I’ll keep you posted, but in the meantime I’m going to try to focus on the here and now. 

I’ll post some pictures of part one of the dispididas, here’s hoping that it won’t get drawn out too much because I don’t even believe in goodbyes.