Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Five days to go...

This morning, I sent off Stephanie at the airport at roughly five in the morning.  If there is one person who can truly understand what I'm going through, it's her.  You see, last year on my birthday, while I was in the midst of still passing through medical in order to just qualify to take the physical at MEPS, Stephanie told me that she was considering joining the Peace Corp.  She told me because she knew I would understand the situation:  Dropping everything that is going on in one's life to basically make a sacrifice and a drastic change in lifestyle.  I told her to go for it.

She did just that, and now she is in Dallas at Peace Corp Staging.  Tomorrow, she will fly to Belmopan, Belize, which will be her home for the next 27 months.

It was a little odd this morning as I dropped her off.  Having spent almost her entire last day in Columbus with her, it felt a lot like foreshadowing to me.  Here she was, sitting in an empty house, just doing some final cleaning and packing.  She had loose ends to tie up but, for the most part, she was ready.  I watched her go through the highs and lows of the process, from selling her car and getting more than what she expected all the way to saying goodbye to friends as well as her pet, which is as much of a part of her family as anyone.

I sit here, now, roughly 120 hours from reporting to MEPS on Tuesday.  I have been going through much of the same issues that she did.  My nights have been locked up with meeting with friends for the last time, people calling me, and just trying to finalize every last bit that I can before I head out.  My mother will be here on Friday night to get my car as well as my dog, which I know will be one of the harder things to deal with in this process.  In essence, her situation and mine will be mirror images as I approach the final days of civilian life.

I've found myself wondering what it's all going to be like next week.  My mind continues to remind me that this is, in fact, happening.  It's not just a dream or an alternate reality.  This is going to happen, and perhaps I still don't understand the sacrifices that I'm making in order to do this.  Kyle posted on my wall earlier tonight that my "life changes forever in a few days."

He couldn't be more right.  It's not just about changing my career.  This is about changing my very way of life.  I've enjoyed my time in Columbus, but for the longest time, I've been complacent about my future.  There are a few things I would change if I could go back, for certain.  Perhaps even change things that would have made my life far different now.  However, one cannot dwell on the past.  Your eyes must remain forward at all times, looking into the future.

My future takes me to Great Lakes, Illinois, in under a week.