It's official!

We had a beautiful swearing-in ceremony on October 3, 2013. It felt so freaking amazing to raise my right hand and take the same oath as thousands of Foreign Service workers, military, congressmen and women, and of course, Peace Corps Volunteers did before me. Ya know, the one where you swear to uphold the constitution of the United States of America so help you God. It’s an archaic little oath, but the significance is not wasted on me. Ever since I got the motivation to become a PCV some 3 or 4 years ago I’ve worked my butt off for this day. I applied to the Peace Corps, fully aware that they might place me in the boonies of some blistering desert or possibly in the desolate remains of the Soviet bloc. You never really know with Peace Corps, and that’s what makes applying such a special time.

I’m so fortune to be in El Salvador. My country staff is the best in the world. I really have nothing to compare them to but I’m willing to bet they beat out every other country staff in devotion and love for their PCVs. Asiha represented the PCTs in a speech that made us laugh and cry. I think she did a good job thanking the staff and our host families for helping us the past ten weeks. I feel ready to move to my new home because of them.

The best part of the ceremony was when Ambassador Mari Carmen Aponte spoke. She is the realest, most down to earth person I ever met. She started her speech in Spanish (the whole ceremony was in Spanish) but switched to English to really drive home what she wanted to say to us: Most people go through life asleep. They wake up, they go to work, they come home, make a frozen pizza and go to sleep. She told us we only really wake up when we spend our time in service to others. So thank goodness all these twenty-something PCVs are waking up early in life!

I feel like that’s a perfect description of why I’m proud to be a PCV. I want to take full advantage of my health and my youth and all the different qualities that make me me. I’m the kind of person who can learn a new language, climb a mountain, try new food, make new friends in a foreign culture. I can spend my days working to better the lives of people in my community. Why? Because I caught on to my internal drive, energy, ambition- whatever you want to call it- fairly early on and decided to act on it.

(Also, I don’t have any student loans. Thanks mom and dad!)

Not everyone knows that they’re sleeping through life. Or maybe they do, but like a bad dream they don’t know how to wake up. I really think there’s truth in what the Ambassador said. Service comes in so many forms, from helping out a friend in need to Mother Teresa. I think Peace Corps ranks somewhere in the middle of that scale. If I do anything during my service, I hope I can inspire people at home to take charge of their lives to do some good.

I want to be awake for life. Don’t you?

The Ambassador's speech 

So cheesed!

Me and the Ambassador

SanAn with Clelia