The "Post before the Invitation" Post

I have tried to write this post many times. I have tried to eloquently detail how horrid it is to tell people for months, I don't know what I'll be doing in the fall. Fall apparently has been a great transition moment for me in the past few years. Every year, I would start a new semester at the University. That was my given, my safe haven almost. I had other up in the air situations, like where I might live or work but I always knew that come August I would be walking across the quad to ten Hoor. Needless to say, I had a melt down a couple of weeks ago. I mean, really what am I supposed to do. I'm sitting here waiting on some e-mail that may or may not come telling everyone I love, "Well I'm not really sure what's going to be happening after summer". I began to think maybe I'm doing the wrong thing. I should stop this train of thought and start applying for big girl jobs with desks. I should enter the suit and tie workforce to compete for the corner office with the window. I should resign myself to monotony.

 

... This is how I feel.

Then I got an e-mail. I hadn't heard from PC in what seemed like a while (in all honesty after reviewing everyone else's blogs it had only been a second) and I was beginning to lose sight of what I wanted to do. My Sunday routine had become reading all my favorite blogs and looking at pictures on Instagram thinking, "This could be me but I'll never be good enough". Then heading to yoga to cleanse it all out. I recently got an iPhone and we have a love/hate relationship.  I love everything about it except, I can't get it to notify me about my e-mails like it does text messages. I am certain it is the operator but it leaves me checking my phone every three minutes for even a glimmer of PC mail. I once again refreshed the e-mails on my phone and saw "Peace Corps Placement" shining brightly from the subject line. I couldn't breathe. I didn't know what an invite e-mail looked like but I felt like this wasn't it. But it was communication. It almost felt like in the eighth grade when I had a crush on a boy but it seemed like he didn't know I existed. Then one night I'm on AIM (xselloutkiddx, btw) and he messages me out of the blue sky. This is the one chance I have to coerce this guy into talking to me.

Screenshot of my Placement Questionaire e-mail.

The e-mail introduced me to Ms. Heather Rowell who had been placed in charge of reviewing my application. She needed a couple more items before she could push me forward to the next phase, the invitation. It was a quick survey with questions not unlike the ones from the interview. "Why do you want to join Peace Corps? What, do you think, will be the greatest challenge of service?..." yada yada yada. I literally completed this 30 minutes after I received the e-mail. She replied, "That was fast. I'll try to be quick too. Expect me to be in touch by April 21."

AHHHHHH!!! This means, I could receive my invitation as early as April 21. I have been unimaginably lucky to be paired up with individuals who want to expedite my application on through. My timeline compared to others is so concise with hardly any blank spaces! This also means that October is more of  a likelihood and I feel more compelled to plan for an October leave. It could also mean that around April 21 she'll contact me about a phone interview and then a week later send an invite. Either way, it was nice to hear from PC and it re-ignited that fire in my belly. It reminded me why I'm putting off making money, getting married, and having babies for just a couple more years. Peace Corps is worth it. To some of my family and close friends, it doesn't seem like it. But I know, when they hear of what I'm doing and see the smiling faces of the people I'm helping, they'll be proud.

P.S. PC, just by the way, my birthday is April 15. It would be really cool to hear something around them.