“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” - Gandhi
I have wanted to become a teacher long before I could ever remember. I have never swayed on my opinion of it; teaching children how to read but also how to believe in themselves at such a young age has always been the most important thing to me. Through summer camps, daycare jobs, and internships, I think I have finally found my calling.
The Peace Corps, established in March of 1961, has a mission to send American volunteers abroad to tackle the most urgent and demanding needs of the people around the world. The options provided in which you can be part of seem endless: providing medical assistance and information, working in agriculture, teaching any and all ages about language, mathematics, science, and the arts.
It wasn’t until my senior year of high school when I realized that I needed to volunteer in this program. I was ready for a challenge that would test me more than anything else ever could.
I want to serve others. I have the power to make a difference in this world, and whether I only touch one person’s life or many, I know it’s going to make everything I’ve done worthwhile. I want to help educate children who love language to see it in the same light that I do, being able to appreciate every sound and every curve of the English alphabet. I want to provide a language education for children who ache for it.
I want to grow as an individual through real life opportunities. I have always been someone who wants to give a helping hand, even if that’s the only thing I have to offer. I crave to learn how we, as volunteers, as educators, can help create something new for a deserving community.
I want to explore another culture that is so different from my own. The only way to truly experience another’s life is to live it. While I can try and teach myself the Swahili tongue, practice the meaning of ‘ubuntu,’ and dedicate my time to understanding the significance behind believing and trusting in spirits and the living-dead, I can never fully grasp it until I see it in action.
The Peace Corps will not only help me give others an education, but it will help give me one as well. There’s so much to learn about the world around us, and we are wasting time not exploring what it has to offer. I love the field of education too much to not do something incredible with it.
I feel a connection between myself and Africa. I feel as if I am being pulled in every direction to just go, if only for two years. I understand that my impact is likely to be a small one rather than large, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be a change among the lives in the community. It’s day by day, but everything that I do I am one step closer to this reality.
The world is my playground. I don’t know where I’m going or when I’ll get there, but I know that I’m going. Are you coming with me?
