Applicants: Revisited

Jess writes:

As 2010 begins, I can't help but do the so-overly-cliche thing and start thinking back on how we got to this point. It certainly seemed that this journey to Peace Corps service was never ending at times... It has been a long and often bumpy ride to 2010.

While it feels now like several lifetimes ago, our first Peace Corps application was submitted in December, 2006. That's right, this last Christmas marked our 3 year anniversary as Peace Corps applicants. (Turns out, that's not uncommon for couples - Yikes.) That December was the beginning of something that Adam and I couldn't possibly comprehend at the time... one of the longest and hardest processes I've ever endured. The rollercoaster ride that is Peace Corps application as a couple has taught Adam and I more about ourselves, our relationship, and our dreams than we ever could have imagined. Especially those times - those many times - when service began slipping through our hands... again. So many times in the last three years we have felt the pang of losing our sense of reality and our grip on certain hopes. And yet, we have also felt the cautious and often strangely fearful exuberance of discovering that possibilities might once again be possible.

Dear endurance: how have you endured? (Usually, you didn't. It's okay.)

And through all the ups and downs of Peace Corps-ness, the rest of our lives slowly began to take shape, to fall into place. We received our degrees in Sustainable Community & Economic Development and Interdisciplinary Studies, we planned and enjoyed a truly beautiful wedding in Wine Country, we moved a couple of times and, thus, held down several jobs and/or related internships, Adam cooked, I cleaned (usually!), we had drinks with other couples and occasionally went out to dinner. All these pieces of the day-to-day slowly began to fit into their pre-determined places for continued life. Thus, to the unknowing eye, our days probably looked as though they were forming quite nicely into normal, typical, lives.

Dear unknowing eye: how little you did know.

Adam and I often joked that the rigors of Peace Corps may actually seem like a glorious vacation after the last few years (hence the somewhat ironic, but still pruposefully suited, blog title.) We are not so naive to think that this may be true, but then again, a few days of village boredom after training will most likely be met with a very warm welcome. Oh the things I might do again with boredom...

So, we enter 2010 with several long years in our wake and many unknowns about the near future. But, to be honest, I know we wouldn't have wanted it any other way. The last few years, despite all the trials, have made us stronger, bound us closer, and brought us to our great adventure... to this journey together that will define each of us and us as one, to that place where we felt our lives together would truly begin. So there it is...

Dear 2010: Go ahead, let life begin.