First Entry

A few people have expressed to me that they will never understand why I want to join the Peace Corps. And honestly, I am perfectly okay with that. I’m even willing to admit that there have been nights I have jolted awake with my heart in my throat wondering the exact same thing. So for my first blog entry I decided to post an excerpt from my diary in which I was trying to quiet even my own conscience of why it is that I’ve decided to take this huge leap of faith:

More than anything, I am drawn to the challenge. I have already learned more French in the past month than I have when I took it for two years at UIC. I can read it! (Sort of.) Though I won’t be tackling the French translation of War and Peace anytime soon, I’m giving it the old college try and studying for a couple hours every day. I don’t particularly enjoy it, but I know I need to learn it. Because it’s rude not to. Because it’ll make my life and my job much easier. Because I want to prove to myself that I can. Because, really, when am I going to have an opportunity to become completely fluent in a foreign language again?

And after feeling as though I spent my first two years of college locked up in a gymnasium, I want nothing more than a life full of experiences. Experiences that will continue to shape the person that I am and that I will carry with me with me no matter what happens. I need to be more concerned with building myself than my resume. And yes, the uncertainty of what my life may be like in Cameroon sometimes makes me a little uneasy. But I am welcoming this new chapter in my life with nothing but excitement and optimism. This is my first time traveling abroad alone, and I feel that Cameroon is the perfect place for me to make a crash landing.