Prologues and Epiloges

At this point in my life, I feel like I am very much in an "inbetween." Having just graduated a few days ago, I am now at home preparing for the next book in my life known as "From Texas to Togo, An adventure with the Peace Corps." I'm not exactly sure how it's going to go, but I am hopeful that I will at least survive the experience and maybe even learn a thing or two.

I'm trying really hard not to get stressed out by packing lists and going away parties and making sure all my affairs are in order. I know that I have the support of all of my friends and family (well, most of them...some of my extended family in Iran seem to think I'm literally insane for leaving an American life to live in Africa) and that makes me feel 100 times better. My current worries are whether or not I will be able to limit myself to packing only 80lbs and also if I actually know any french (because I feel like I know nothing...absolutely nothing.)

I am looking forward to a lot of things though, mostly traveling to Africa and meeting all of the other PCVs that will be working with me for the next two years. I wonder if everybody else is feeling the same things I am right now, and I'm guessing most are. If I had to describe it, it's a mixture of nervous anticipation, excitement, nausea, and a bit of hopefulness. I'm hopeful that as one good experience ends, another will begin. I left Austin yesterday, leaving behind many memories and friends. I had some of my best friends with me towards the end of it all, so the transition was a bit smoother, but it was still hard to leave such an amazing city. I honestly don't think that I would have even applied to the Peace Corps had I not lived in Austin and gone to UT. Aside from all of the courses and labs, and as clichéd as this sounds, I really did learn A LOT about myself as an individual. Austin and UT allowed me to be myself without having to censor any part of me and through all the experiences I had I think that I have a much stronger sense of who I am. Going into my next experience, I can only imagine how important a strong sense of "self" will be, and in my opinion, it is the most valuable thing I am taking with me. I may not know a lot about Public Health or the french language, but what I do know is that I am an optimistic and bright individual who is capable of giving and loving and many other wonderful things.

For anyone reading this blog (and I hope some people are) I will do my best to post entries about my life and feelings while abroad as often as possible. I can't make any guarantees, and I will admit that I have an awful track record with writing blogs, but I think that once life starts happening, I will have more to say. I think the reason I have failed to write about my life in the past is that I didn't view many of my experiences as "things to chronicle to remember forever" but rather "experiences that help shape my own identity," and admittedly, the meaning of the latter is much harder to put into words.

Here goes nothing!!

Love,
ARO

Dreams and Aspirations.

Every morning, even before I open my eyes, I am thinking about what the next 27 months of my life are going to look like in Africa. Some of you may know (and by some I mean no one because I have yet to publicize this blog's existence...) that I have accepted an invitation to join the Peace Corps as a Community/Public Health Advisor in Togo. My date of departure is rapidly approaching and the next month before I leave will probably be the most hectic month of my life. Today, I realized that in less than two weeks after I walk across the stage at graduation, I will be flying across the world to a new life in Africa. (That' is CRAZY!!)

Amidst all of my final midterms and exams and everything else I need to do school-wise before I leave, I literally think about the Peace Corps ALL THE DAMN TIME! Not an hour goes by in which I don't think about what my life will be like, who I will meet, what I will eat - yes, all of these questions cycle in an endless loop. I think what I'm looking forward to the most right now is meeting people that are going to be with me during training. Some of you all may know, I find "training events" to be highly enjoyable, and from what I gather from other peoples' blogs, the PC training is 10 weeks of FUN covering a multitude of topics ranging from "how to poo in a latrine" to filtering water and speaking french. (Luckily I have the latrine thing down. Thank you family vacations to Iran!)

All of my dreams are slowly becoming about the Peace Corps as well. I can only imagine what will happen when I'm on the malaria prophylaxis - which some say induces vivid dreams. That's a silver lining in my opinion.