Equanimity

Equanimity (n)- mental or emotional stability or composure, especially under tension or strain

Peace Corps asks a lot of preparation from its volunteers! As you might imagine, the process of sending young (and older) Americans off to live in a foreign country is somewhat arduous, at least from this side.

For those of you who are curious, the Peace Corps application and preparation process consists of:

- a lengthy application online, including recommendation letters, essays, and lots of personal information about your life and experience.

- a telephone interview

- an invitation to serve, which must be accepted or rejected within three days

- legal clearance, including fingerprinting and background checks

- medical clearance, which was a barrage of paperwork, spanning blood tests, immunization history, additional vaccines, medical history, optometry and dental appointments, dredging up of paperwork and documentation from specialists of decades past

- application for a visa and Peace Corps passport (which is a temporary passport, parallel to a diplomatic document)

- submission of transcripts and proof of degrees

- financial and personal arrangements to be out of the country for two + years

- travel arrangements to a domestic staging event

- packing (that's an understatement)

- spending as much quality time as possible with friends and family ❤

THEN, if you thought you were done

- Staging event: where I am now, in Philadelphia, to pick up paperwork, attend training sessions, and meet my peers (three days)

- Travel to host country

- Orientation to Peace Corps in your host country (another three days)

- Pre-service training: ten weeks of intensive training encompassing cross-cultural skills, technical skills, local language, and education about life in your host country. In Zambia, I'll be staying with a host family during this period and learning how to be a local (hopefully).

- End of training evaluations: if I pass my language tests and am deemed ready to serve, I will swear in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer and be sent to live in a village.

This has been a one year process thus far. With all this preparation and build-up, I'm certainly experiencing a noteworthy range of emotions: excitement of this dream of mine coming true, fear of not being successful in my efforts, curiosity about my new life, anxiety about being so far away from loved ones, eagerness to get to work, Overall, a feeling of readiness, of openness to new experiences, of embracing all that is to come in the next two years.

The Returned Peace Corps Volunteers whom I have had the pleasure to meet all exude a remarkable, humble sort of confidence. It's competency combined with patience and tolerance, as well as a drive to succeed regardless of the work involved. What I hope to personally gain most out of being a Peace Corps Volunteer is something approaching that equanimity.