It's surprisingly not hard to believe that my departure is finally close at hand. When I first received my invitation back in October, I made a conscious decision to set aside all of my reading material until it was closer to May 22nd. When I was first nominated I had been told that, typically, an invitation comes 6-8 weeks (max) before your actual departure. So, I told myself I would become focused solely on Peace Corps / Armenia when the 8 week mark rolled around.
At the moment, it's about 5 weeks until my departure (eek!). I just returned from a lovely week long trip driving through the Irish country side with my mother. We went, we saw, we conquered. Two days before arriving home I received a PST (Pre-Service Training) related email. It contained a brief overview of the first couple days in Armenia. Once arriving in Yerevan, we are being put up in a hotel for three days before training begins. (It's funny - all of these small details were far from my consciousness beforehand and now they are fun pieces being added to the puzzle). There was also a sample schedule of a day in training. The days will be long and full, with hour long lunches with our host family. It will be a summer like none I've ever experienced. I'm wildly grateful for the last few summer weather days here on Long Island and have been enjoying them beach side.
If you've been following along since I began blogging, it comes as no surprise that my mind has been elsewhere. Yet now, with the recent influx of information and waning days, there is little else I think about. Since being prompted to and then joining the Peace Corps Armenia Facebook group, I have spent a good amount of free time looking through the page. It's essentially an open forum where the A-20's (this is what my group of invitees has been dubbed, as we are the 20th PCV group) can ask current Armenian volunteers questions that our reading material has not answered. It's also given me the opportunity to stalk all of my future fellow volunteers- if you're reading this, yes I mean you. I couldn't believe it when I read that there will (most likely, if everyone shows up) be 46 invitees in the A-20 group. It's a lot more than I expected, but not all of those individuals are TEFL.
There are few words to describe how I feel about leaving. It's hard to believe almost two years ago, in June of 2010 with hours before the application deadline, I clicked the send button. Then, after my own procrastination and stubbornness, finally receiving medical clearance in July of 2011. When my invitation arrived in October of that year, I was so disappointed. I wanted to have left 3 months earlier. I wanted to be by the sea. Yet, I wasn't willing to let these *small* differences change my commitment and dedication to making this happen for myself.
Now, with spring in full bloom and my 25th birthday looming right before departure, I know that ultimately everything is as it was always going to be. The journey before the adventure was as necessary as the adventure itself.
