June 29, 2008

The storm before the storm

So, it's been a while since I posted. That's partly because I've been busy and partly because I'm still in the U.S. and I can still talk to most of the people who would be reading this. However, since it's been over a month since my last post, for the sake of continuity (and procrastination) I'm posting a quick update.

I've got eight days until I leave for staging and I just wrote up a to do list. It's so long it's depressing. Most of the stuff is pretty easy but there are just so many loose ends I need to tie up that it's a bit overwhelming. Not to mention I haven't started packing yet... I'm having trouble getting motivated as my current living situation consists of sleeping in my parents' living room with all of my belongings lumped into piles around the house. It makes tasks so much harder when they all have to be prefaced with moving a bunch of crap out of the way to even find the thing you're looking for. But really I'm just being lazy.

It's crazy to think that in 10 days time I'll be living in Africa with a family I've never met who speak a language I barely know and have a ton of customs that are completely foreign to me. I'm excited, but it sort of seems like this is happening to someone else. I don't really feel like I'm about to leave the U.S. for two years. It's been so long since I first applied for Peace Corps last July and I've gotten used to thinking of Peace Corps as something I'll do in the future as opposed to the present. I'm having a tough time wrapping my mind around the fact that it's about to become a reality.

At the same time though I'm really excited that my departure date is almost here. It's been such a long wait and I'm antsy to get going. I've been operating at such a high level of stress and anxiety trying to make sure I get everything done that it'll be a relief to finally be done with this preparatory stage. Even though I know that once I get to Guinea I'll be faced with a whole slew of new challenges I feel about as prepared for those challenges as I could hope for and I'm ready to meet them head on.

Alright, well enough procrastination. I need to start tackling this to do list. I think if I start now and don't sleep until I leave that I just might be able to get everything done in time. Here's hoping.

~Jesse

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

post your address!

i want to mail you trash & such.

Anonymous said...

post your new cellphone number so i can call you in the city! Well anyways i miss you jesse :'[ and its very boring playing frisbee in BoB and Gean's lawn by myself. sometimes i miss you so much i cry and its really sad without you :[

-your little sis Mei