the road might take me away...

(10/02/2010)

In a matter of hours I’ll be on my way to Africa for what will undoubtedly be a life changing two years. While I expect I am about to face both triumphs and challenges unlike anything I can imagine, my mind is hardly focused on the future. Instead, I find myself looking back at everything and everyone that I am leaving behind.

I understand that my commitment to join the Peace Corps came as a shock to more than a few of you. I don’t expect that many will ever fully understand why I did this, and I am actually fine with that. What matters to me is that when it came down to it I felt all the support and love that I could have ever asked for. I know there are some out there who may think that I am running away from something, but I would never want anyone to believe that. To put it shortly, this is just something that I feel like I have to do, for better or worse. Running away implies that I am trying to get away from something, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. Thinking back now on my life and what I am leaving behind I am filled with so much happiness and so many fond memories. At about this point in my journal I list a lot of those memories, and while they are too many and too sappy to put here, please know that I am still thinking of them and you all everyday.

Home is always home. That means Columbus (ask my left arm), Chicago, and Oxford, but mostly it means the people I met there along the way. These next two years will be trying, but that has nothing to do with the lack of amenities or the food or anything like that. The only thing that worries me is being away from everyone that I love.

“The road might take me away, but it’s sure enough to bring me home.”