I finally found out a week ago that I would officially be a Peace Corps Volunteer heading to Ukraine in late March 2011. I have been in the application process for almost a year (that's an entire post in and of itself) but finally found out the good news while I was up at my brother and sister-in-laws house in New Hampshire. I typed the following excerpt on my laptop on January 11, 2011, so that I would be able to remember my sheer state of excitement and tried to include every detail I could in regards to the phone calls I made that day.
"There are lots of titles that I could place for the title of this post. However, I will go ahead and skip talking about that and get to the main point.
I will be going into the Peace Corps. For real. In about 2 months. Holy. Cow.
Let me explain a few events that have happened in the past few days.
On December 15, 2010, I received an email requesting an updated resume with all new work and volunteer experiences I’ve had since I turned in my last resume in March 2010. Now, that wouldn’t have been that hard…but they wanted to know how many hours a week I worked at the organization, what I did while I worked there, where it is, etc., etc. Since March 2010, I had been to Mexico for 3 weeks, Montana for 12 days, Texas numerous times, and other random little side trips here and there working with groups. Needless to say, the entire “updating your resume” loomed over my head for at least a week. I ended up sending in my updated resume via email on my birthday, December 28, 2010. Now, flash forward to January 10, 2011. I receive an email from my “follow-up officer” who had requested my updated resume. Apparently, the form I sent it to her in did not work. Now I needed to send it in a PDF file. So at 11:58 pm I sent my updated resume as a PDF.
The next morning (January 11, 2011), Suzy sent me an email at 8:01 am stating the following:
“Hello Lydia, I now have your complete file and will pass you on to your placement officer. They will contact you as soon as they are able to conduct their final review of your file. Thank you for your patience up to this time. I wish you the best of luck in the future!”
Now if that email doesn’t make your mind start racing I don’t know what would. Suzy was on the ball though, and at 12:05 pm today (January 11, 2011), I missed a call from Joseph, who is from the Peace Corps placement office. I was meeting one of my high schoolers for lunch at Pei Wei, and at that point, I only had 10 minutes to talk before she would be arriving. So, I walk into Pei Wei to order our food, and who is already sitting there but Scott Meier. Turns out he was meeting 2 of our other high schoolers there, so we decided to have a big lunch for the 5 of us. Anxious and nervous the entire time, I had to wait until 1 pm when the kids had gone back to high school and I could go sit in my car and make THE phone call. Here is what the voicemail message said:
“Hello this message is for Lydia Frost. Hi, this is Joseph Eddy. I’m calling with the PC (Peace Corps) placement office in DC...just calling because we haven’t been in touch in a bit and I wanted to touch base with you and let you know where things are on our end and see how you’re doing. If you would, please give me a call when you get the opportunity.”
After the kids had left, I let Scott listen to the voicemail and his immediate reaction was, “You’re in, you’re in.” But I still wasn’t sold. So we joked and he said, “Okay, who are you going to call after you get off the phone with him? Your parents, or me?” Obviously, I would be calling my parents first.
So, for the next 30+ minutes, I sat in my car outside of Pei Wei and talked to Mr. Joseph about everything under the sun. What was my motivation for still doing PC? Had it changed? Where did I want to serve? Would I be willing to serve anywhere in the world? What were my reasons for wanting to serve in Eastern Europe? The program you were initially nominated for is now full…that sentence made my stomach drop. I felt like I was going to cry because of disappointment. Then he goes on: How could I differentiate between working with church-related groups, knowing that the PC is a government affiliated-program that is non-religion based? If I am stressed or frustrated, how do I let out my emotions? Blah, blah, blah. I’m sure I talked more than most people because I was AN ABSOLUTE TRAIN WRECK. I could hear him clicking away at the computer and he would sum up my long ramblings of answers and state, “So basically, you still want to go to Eastern Europe, in particular Ukraine, but you would serve anywhere in the world, preferably not Africa.” Ha. I was impressed with his summarization skills, because as anyone who knows me well can tell you, I can talk.
So after our 30+ minute convo, he finally stopped typing away and asked me if I had any questions for him. Uhmm, yeah, am I going? And when? And where? That’s all I wanted to know. I’m sitting in the car trying to process all of my past ramblings I just lead him on, wondering if I totally screwed up my chances, and wondering how in the world I should word my questioning so it doesn’t look like I’m desperate but that the Peace Corps really is what I’ve been banking on for the past year or more. No big deal. I think the question I formulated was somewhere along the lines of: “So I know you may not be able to answer this, but do you know if I would still be going in mid to late-March 2011 if I am to go?” I probably tacked on 3 or 4 more little questions after that and he kind of chuckled and said, “Well, I can tell you this much. Count this as an informal invitation. I can tell you that you will be going to Eastern Europe, I cannot tell you the country. And that the program is a community growth and youth development program that leaves in mid to late-March 2011. I will be sending your formal invitation in the mail today, so you should get it by the end of this week. Your formal invitation will have information on your country, on the program, and you will have to accept or decline the invitation.” At that point I wanted to hug him even though we were miles away. I was finally in. Everything finally made sense.
At that point, I try to call my parents. I called the home phone, then both of their cell phones. And no one answered ANY of them. At that point I was on my way over to their house and I just wanted to let them know in person. But I also REALLY NEEDED TO TELL SOMEONE. So I called Scott and laughed as I told him that I couldn’t get a hold of my parents to let them know first, but I simply beamed as I told him all that had just occurred. I arrived at my parent’s house, let him go, and tried calling my parents again. They finally answered or called me back (who knows), and my mom said, “My gosh, is it that important that you had to talk to us?” The odd part is, on some days, my mom and I can talk up to 10 times a day. And she always answers the phone willingly when I'm driving across town because my parents know that's when it is easiest for me to talk....regardless of whether it's convenient for them. So, um, yes...I need to talk now! (Sidenote: on this particular day in Norman, it was a blistering windy day, with the wind chill probably in the teens. My parents had just walked quite a ways to get at Cafe Plaid on Campus Corner, their hands were freezing, their phones were buried in their pockets and purses, and it was blowing a gale outside. IE, not the best time to talk on the phone.) So after I explained that indeed we needed to talk RIGHT NOW, words were exchanged, jumping occurred, smiles were glowing. They weren’t even at home. I did have Missy (our puppy dog) to give me a big hug though. I then called my brother on my way back to work. And have been beaming ever since.
What an eventful day. I can hardly think about the fact that I will be thousands of miles away in about 2 months. Will I get to go to Texico? Only He knows the answer to that. It will be my year #10. I can’t imagine not going. But I also know that it is crazy of me to want to go. However, I know that if my leave date is not until after Mexico, that I will most definitely be doing everything in my realm to go on that trip.
Thanks for today, God. It has been a wonderful journey."
And with that, I am posting this and signing off!! My last day in New Hampshire is tomorrow :( sad day! But there will be many pictures posted regarding my time spent here!!
