it's all cosmic!

So, the previous blog entry probably gave a bit of a hint of what is coming next.

Two dates - exactly two years apart, but very different from each other.

November 14, 2006 – I came home from one of the most emotionally draining days at work. There were no interpreters for the managers / assistant managers meetings for the second or third time in a row. Throughout the day I alternated between feelings of anger, being at the verge of tears, and being amazed at the callousness. I arrived home, ate dinner, had a couple of beers, and decided to sit at my desk and complete the Peace Corps application I started a couple of months beforehand, and after three hours, it was sent across the airwaves. I think my roommate at that time took one look at me, and decided to stay the hell out of my room while I finished it up. I went to bed tired, but still angry, one of many nights I would go to bed angry throughout the winter and the following spring.

November 14, 2008 – I am scheduled to start training in Kenya, after arrival on the 13th, as a Peace Corps Trainee.

What a difference two years makes – the beginning of that two years period forced me to realize what values I had regarding my job, regarding treatment of the people I worked with and loved, the anger I felt when the clients and the staff were not being treated as I thought they should have been treated, the disappointment in myself when I realized that there was not much, if anything, I could do to help out on that front.

The second part of those two years was amazing. I took the Year Off, worked at an awesome winery, skied a couple times per week for six months, went on a road trip up north via the Pacific Coast Highway, stayed / worked with the brother and sis-in-law and developed a relationship with them (and many of their animals) that I would not have if I did not stay with them for two months.

I am at the point where I am excited about Peace Corps for the right reasons. When I first applied, I realize now, it was to escape the situation at my old office. Now, after two years, the reasoning shifted to being genuinely excited about being pushed to exercise my mind, to having my ideas actually used, to travel and see new places, and just basically to have a bit of an adventure.

So, like K said – it’s all cosmic.