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Thursday, September 5, 2013

It’s Not All Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows


It’s my birthday, I can cry if I want to

Someone from Peace Corps once told me, “If you have a great day, write about it on your blog.  If you have a bad day, write about it in your journal.”  That’s a nice rule, but then my blog will be misrepresenting my experience here.  Does every class go great?  Am I happy every day?  Do projects always go smoothly?  Does the garden always grow?  No, no, no.

Today marks one year since we arrived in Nicaragua.  No matter what we’ve done in this first year, it’s an accomplishment in itself that we’ve made it this far.  Some others who started out in our training group with us a year ago today didn’t make it to the one year mark; whether for personal, medical, or family reasons they had to make the difficult decision to head back home and not finish their service.  Just making it one year is an accomplishment.

Yesterday was my birthday.  I had a great morning at work at my rural school.  The students sang me songs and we had a little dance party.  It was impromptu and heartfelt, and the kids and I really enjoyed it.  Then I came home from class.


I’ve found that when I have too much time alone, to much time to think, that’s when it’s the toughest.  I start to think about the fact that I’m 25 and still haven’t started my career, I think about my friends at home and all of the things I’m missing out on, I think about how I would be celebrating my birthday if I was there instead of here.  You don’t know boredom until you’ve been in the Peace Corps.  In the last year, and in my time in Honduras, that’s one thing I’ve definitely learned—how to be bored and be okay with it, to embrace it and not let it overwhelm me.  Yesterday afternoon I was bored.  And it was my birthday.  And I was sad.  And pretty homesick.

What was I expecting?  I don’t really know.  My host family here hasn’t ever done anything big to celebrate people’s birthdays.  It was just a regular afternoon.  I washed all my clothes, stopped by the school to plan with one of my teachers, watched some Netflix, and spent some time feeling sorry for myself.

If there’s anything that has made me grow over the past year, it’s my ability to pick myself up after days like yesterday.  To acknowledge “yeah, that was rough.”  And then remind myself, “and now it’s over.”  Peace Corps service is a rollercoaster. 

My parents sent me a calendar in the mail, and I use it to write down important things that I have going on, but even more importantly, at the end of each day, I take a Sharpie and put a big X through the day that is ending.  At first I thought that this was a bad tradition for me to have, that it seemed too much like I was counting down the days until my service is over.  But then I realized how therapeutic it is sometimes, after a hard day, to put that big X through the date and remember that I’m moving forward and that it’s time to put that day behind me and look ahead to the next one.  Maybe the kids were wild in class and I got frustrated, maybe I felt unproductive and sat and watched movies all day, maybe I worked hard on a lesson and then ended up not having class, maybe it’s rained all day and my clothes didn’t dry…but no matter what happened, I still get to put that big X through the date and it’s done, over, finished.

Happy 1 year in country, Nica 60.  We’ve made it this far, and we’ll make it the next year and three months too.  Birthdays and anniversaries are a great opportunity to look back at the good and the bad of the past year.  To remember how we’ve grown and changed and think about the year to come.  I’ve learned, experienced, and grown so much, and things are always looking up!  Like I said, Peace Corps service is a rollercoaster, and even after the lowest moments, there's always something to look forward to...things always start getting better.  My birthday wasn't the best of days, but I'm leaving tomorrow to Leon with my Nica 60 friends to celebrate 1 year in-country.  And then Luis finishes his volunteer program and I'm going away with him next weekend.  It always gets better!


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