Application

I had been in awe of the Peace Corps since childhood. It was an amazing thing that only amazing people did. I was desperately interested but couldn't fully imagine myself among the Peace Corp elite as much as I talked about it with high school friends, then college friends, then grad school friends. Then I moved to South Korea and it no longer seemed so unattainable. I could move across the world and survive. I could be a good teacher. I enjoyed travelling. I could be the stuff Peace Corps volunteers were made of.

I started an application to serve in the Peace Corps about five months after I moved to South Korea to teach. I finished the entire thing, entered my reference information, wrote the essays. The whole thing was done. But I held off submitting it. I told myself it was too early to decide. The process took too long, I didn't know what I would be doing a year in the future. I waited so long the application was deleted. But I didn't stop thinking about the Peace Corps. During my last months in South Korea I had few doubts. The Peace Corp was what I wanted to do. If it took so damn long I would just have to apply ridiculously early and find something to fill my time. The trick was the application process had changed by then.

I am under the impression that mine is among the first of the new applications to go through the shortened process. President Obama and the Peace Corps decided to overhaul the system to make it easier and more attractive for young people to apply. The year long process of applying was shortened to about six months. I found out that the year I had planned into the application process was no longer necessary. I had planned to leave for Peace Corps service at the beginning of 2016 but things don't always turn out the way we planned.

I submitted by application on July 22, 2014 and very shortly was asked to schedule an interview to discuss an education position in Sierra Leone. I was on my way!