One week to go

One week… It's hard to believe sometimes that I'm moving to Botswana next week. It's just such a surreal sentence. Someone asked me what I was doing next week and that was my response. Just.. what? Anyway, last week I was feeling really panicked and anxious about going, but so far this week I've been feeling optimistic and thrilled to be starting this new part of my life. I know that no matter what, even if I don't buy every single item I want to take with me or have the perfect packing list or manage to fit everything in my bags, I will still get on a plane and join the Peace Corps. It really takes the edge off of all the obsessing I've been doing. Hopefully I'll manage to keep this calm and positive outlook until my departure, but who knows. Peace Corps isn't called an emotional roller coaster for nothing.

So, I've decided to post a before, during, and after of my packing process. I'm hoping to have almost all of my shopping and packing done by Friday so that I can have the weekend to just relax and hang out with my family. Here's my before of my bags and some of the things I've been buying over the last few weeks:

July - Packing begins

Getting started on my packing with an amazon shopping spree. I've got a headlamp, flashlight, a steamer, a weatherman, and a sleeping bag liner. I'm most excited about the leather, I really like fixing things and making things so I keep geeking out over it. Once my bags arrive I think it will really start to sink in… How on earth am I going to fit everything into two fifty pound bags?

July - Less than one month until staging

Things are speeding up. I am now medically cleared, my tickets are booked, and my bags are in the mail. Sometimes I still can't believe this is all really happening.

May - Medically cleared!

This morning I woke up to a beautiful email saying I received final medical and dental clearance. One step closer to Botswana!

April - Kindness from strangers

So, I haven’t been updating much about my doctor appointments or my consulate passport shenanigans, mostly because I don’t think anyone will actually be interested. Instead, I’d like to talk about the kindness of strangers. 

My friends and family have been really great about the Peace Corps. People send me links whenever they see something about Botswana, my mom is already on the lookout for the items on my packing list, and people I haven’t talked to in ages sent their support when I made a status about joining. But what really surprised me is how kind and supportive complete strangers are when they find out I’m about to be in the Peace Corps. Every person from the receptionist at my dentist’s office to my family doctor went out of their way to make sure I could get appointments as soon as possible. People congratulated me, they went over my paperwork three times to make sure it was perfect, they even changed their schedules for me. The woman who works at my eye doctor’s even told me was proud of me. I’m just blown away by how great people I barely know have been throughout this entire process. 

April - Staging

I just got an email from the Peace Corps saying my staging has been moved up by four days to August 6th. Whyyyyy. I had already reserved those four days for freaking out, re-packing three times, and binge watching netflix in bed. Now I'll have to get my act together even sooner.

April - My life is paperwork

It's my last week of classes before exams. Of my entire undergraduate career! I can't believe it. I essentially have three more weeks before my summer begins! But that also means that I have an unbelievable amount of stuff to do. Study for exams/write my final papers, clean out my apartment, move the rest of my stuff back home, and somehow get all my forms complete for the Peace Corps too. That picture I posted is no exaggeration. There are so. many. forms. I have four different doctor appointments coming up and a meeting at the consulate for my new passport. I'm trying my best to keep everything organised to stay on track, but it's a lot.