The "After Shock" Post

Inbox after invitation e-mail and my acceptance.



Now that the shock of receiving my actual invitation has worn off, I can only think of one emotion that describes me-overwhelmed. Applicants go months without hearing anything from Peace Corps, personally I went a little over a month before I heard anything. Still, it can make you resent Peace Corps. Once again, like that crush, they show you no attention and now suddenly you've become interesting and your inbox looks like this:
Even though you want to be like, "I've moved on". You can't because this is what you've invested MONTHS in. So you accept your invitation (whether it be on a date or to the Africa for 2.5 years). Then they become obsessive compulsive and want everything now.



Every e-mail from PC makes me
squeal with excitement.

The amount of e-mails from Peace Corps in my inbox was not really what overwhelmed me. Nor was it the issue of what to do when my lease runs out in July. No, the overwhelmed sensation came when I got an e-mail from MAP, Medical Application Portal. I knew this day would come. I knew there would be more than a handful of tasks to be done. But I didn't know that my hatred for what the biomedical institution has become would engulf my love for PC. I understand that extensive medical information is necessary for a 2 year stay in a country with limited medical resources but I HATE doctors. Nothing against them personally, they just miss a lot because they've been trained to ignore the entire spectrum of human life; therefore, missing very important vital information relating to an illness. I digress. So, in the month of May I will be spending a lot of my days off in doctor's and dentist's offices getting prepped for my service. There will be blood taken, teeth pulled, and immunizations given. If I seem a little testy, it's because I'm being incessantly poked and prodded.
Either way, I opened up my detailed e-mail from MAP and got absolutely lost. The first sentence reminded me that I only have six months left in the states. That's six months to take care of everything I have to take care of. Being the Type A personality that I am, I began to make lists. I would publish it here but it's a long list of things people do not care about. After the nausea wore off and I didn't feel as dizzy, I opened my medical portal to in order to stir up another panic attack. Lists, lists, and more lists of blood work, shots, x-rays, and physicals. Needless to say, it was daunting.

I hadn't been in the Medical Application Portal since my application back in February. Of course, then I didn't have any tasks because I was medically pre-cleared. But this time, low and behold the nightmare that is my tasks tab. Luckily, I have a couple of months to get this all done but still it is a lot. It's around this time that I wish all my med school friends were finished because that would make my life a hell of a lot easier.