Why Peace Corps

Why, you might ask, am I willingly leaving friends and family for two years to live in a hut and shower in a bucket?  This whole question of 'why' has come up frequently in the past few months as I've shared my unconventional response to the standard graduation question: "What are you doing with your life?" I recently came across my initial Peace Corps application, where I responded to this frequent question: Why Peace Corps?  Written a year ago, my desire to join has only grown stronger.  Here's an excerpt from my application that sums up my desire to embark on this crazy adventure:

At the age of fifteen, I traveled to Santiago, Dominican Republic with a group of twenty members of my church.  It was there that my future dreams and aspirations took shape as I developed relationships with several children at the orphanage where we were volunteering.  Raised in a small achievement-oriented suburb, I was drawn to the Dominican value placed on relationships and community.  The children and the culture drew me back five additional times and each visit revealed something new, shaping my future in a distinct way.  Over time, my experiences in the Dominican Republic have led me to discover my passion for other cultures as well as for service, particularly in health-related areas.  As a result of these discoveries, I have geared my education and summer experiences towards enhancing my knowledge and understanding of global health, with the ultimate goal of promoting community health in developing nations.  My motivation for serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer stems both from my desire to gain additional experience in the field of international development, ideally in health education, and from the desire to gain insight into specific areas of public health for future focus.  I believe that the Peace Corp’s unrivaled training and experience placing volunteers will provide an ideal transition into my future plans to pursue a Master’s degree in Public Health and Nursing.  Additionally, the Peace Corps mission to transfer skills and promote the cultural exchange between people of different nations is in alignment with my personal belief that cultural interchange is vital to the development of a cooperative global community.  Serving in the Peace Corps has been my dream since my initial visits to the Dominican Republic and I am increasingly convinced that it will provide an optimal bridge between my past experiences, education, and ultimate career goal to contribute to positive sustainable change in the world.

The combination of cultural immersion, public health skills development, and having the opportunity to do what is in my power to ideally affect some degree of change makes Peace Corps the perfect, though somewhat unconventional, next step for me.  After much prayer, it has become increasingly evident that I am being called to spend the next two years in service and for some strange reason, God wants me in Swaziland.  I am confident that this next chapter is part of His perfect plan and I am thrilled to see what this journey has in store.