The Application Process Part 1: Applying - Nomination

I started this journey over a year ago when I submitted my application on May 1st, 2009, the first day recommended to apply for a September 2010 departure. I must admit I started the application at least a month earlier, working on it in the mornings before the students would come barrelling into my classroom. The Peace Corps websites were the only personal sites I had favorited on my work laptop. Though I guess one could argue the journey actually started in the summer of 2008, when I first heard about the Peace Corps and began to really consider it.

I remember sitting with Stephanie that summer having tea at Starbucks and her mentioning how she wanted to volunteer and work with turtles in South America and maybe join the PC someday. The Peace Corps, I thought, Wow, what an adventure that would be. I went home the evening and for the first time went to their website, reading through the material. Something about it really called to me, drew me to it, but really? The Peace Corps? It sounded interesting, something right up my alley, but I couldn't even fathom actually doing it. It was like a golden dream, something desired but unreal, existing on the fringes of my mind out of the realm of possibilities.

So life continued. I was supposed to leave for England that fall but I decided to postpone my entry, opting instead to work for the year to earn the money for school. I took a job teaching English literature to 7th and 8th grade students with no education experience whatsoever in my background, and am proud to say that from day one, even though I felt in over my head, I was able to swim and not sink. But the thought of the Peace Corps kept nipping at me, bugging at me. In September I began to look at more websites with an almost obsessive regularity, reading about it, learning all I could about it. The dream slowly solidified, lost its golden haze, became a real possibility, something that could actually happen, something I could actually do. The more I read, the more I realised: this is what I wanted to do. Exactly what I'm looking for in the PC, why I want to join, will be saved for another post, but I realised that here was a program that would allow me to do everything I wanted. November 2008 is when I decided that I was going to do it, and I began to eagerly await the day I could start the application process.

Things moved quickly once my application was submitted. All of my recommendations were in within a month, and I was contacted by the Dallas headquarters by the end of June to discuss when I could have an interview since they knew I was under time restraints. My recruiter knew I was leaving for England that September for school and that I would be out of town a few weeks in August, but she needed some papers that I was still waiting for. Don't worry, she said, I could just bring the papers to our meeting, I just needed to let her know when I had them. I received the forms in July and sent her an e-mail telling her so, but then weeks went by without any meeting being set up. I began to become very concerned as my leaving date loomed in front of me, until I finally broke and gave her a call, asking her what the hold up was. I must admit I was really amused when she told me she was still waiting for those papers. When I reminded her she said I could just bring them to the meeting, she said, 'Oh. Well then. August 14th good for you?' I said it was.

Oh my, what a weekend that was! I took the opportunity of going to Dallas to meet up with a lot of friends (who, by some twist of fate, were all in Dallas that weekend as well) as part of a goodbye tour before leaving for England. But first things first: the interview. In downtown Dallas. Terrifying downtown Dallas. You're just puttering along the highway, take the exit for downtown, and then spend the next fifteen minutes going 'AHHH! AHHH! AHHH! Oh, there's the building I need. AHHH! AHHH! AHHH!' I would have made a sailor blush if they had been in the car with me, trying to maneuver through the poorly marked narrow one way streets, looking for someplace to park in that jungle while not running over people as they randomly cross the street. I'm glad I got there early, it took a few minutes for the screaming in my head to calm down.

Once the screaming stopped, I nervously went into the imposing federal building, which looks exactly like scary federal buildings do in the movies with guards and metal detectors and everything, and made my way to the Peace Corps offices. The interview went really smoothly, I watched some videos, we chatted about this that and the other, and I handed her the papers she needed. Then she asked me the two Big Questions:

1) Where do you want to serve?

2) What would you like to do in your service?

Where? Anywhere but Africa. She paused at that answer, giving me a strange look. 'Why not Africa?' Way back at the beginning of all of this, when I first told my parents I was going to join the PC, they supported me whole heartily but had one request: don't go to Africa. 'You do know that Africa is the safest place we go to.' It doesn't matter. I'm incredibly lucky and blessed with parents who have supported me in all of my life choices, and I've learned through the years that their advice and concerns have sound reasoning behind them, so I might as well take them into consideration. I honestly don't mind where I serve, and if not going to Africa makes my parents feel more comfortable, it's something I'm willing to do for them. She just smiled and shrugged, making a note in my file that I'm willing to serve anywhere except Africa, preferring Eastern Europe and Asia. My guess is she doesn't get that response very often. Seems to me most people join the Peace Corps because they want to go to Africa. I don't mind being the odd duck.

What would I like to do? Anything. But I must be honest, even though I have an education background now, what with teaching for the past year, I would really like to learn something new and not teach. She gave me another weird look. 'Considering your background, education is really the only thing you're qualified for. However, since you have teaching experience, you're qualified to be a teacher trainer. You probably wouldn't be placed as an actual teacher because you actually have some experience.' Teacher trainer? What's that? She explained the position to me and I got really excited. Sure, I would still be in the education field, but I would still be doing something new, something I hadn't done before. Now that time has passed, I realise that I would still be incredibly happy teaching English somewhere. It would still be new and different, which is exactly what I want. Heck, I would be happy with anything. Whatever. I'm pretty easy.

So she searched the database and found a program she thought I would fit and I was nominated before leaving her office for a teacher trainer position in Eastern Europe/Asia to depart September 2010. I was walking on air as I left the imposing building, sending a text to my parents as soon as I was in my car, excitedly telling them I was nominated. They sent their congratulations and I spent the rest of the weekend travelling around Texas saying goodbye to friends, spending a couple of days in Dallas with Alli, Adrienne, Corey, and Sabby, then heading to San Antonio to spend time with Dana before heading back to Houston.

The next week I went to Hawaii with my family for two weeks. One week after that I found myself on a plane flying to England, my life reduced to two incredibly heavy suitcases. After I was settled in England, I got an e-mail from my parents telling me something had come for me in the mail from the PC: the medical kit.

The next part of the odyssey had begun.