Goodbyes and Hellos

Just a brief update! I spent last week in New York saying goodbye to friends which led to an interesting trip, not because anything happened, but because of the circumstances. I’d started saying goodbye to friends the last weekend in June at a friend’s graduation party and continued this last week. The goodbyes are a little difficult because they aren’t so much saying “goodbye” as they are a “see you later.” With my school friends, it almost feels like I’m leaving for the summer… kind of like a really long summer. The trip was full of lunches, coffees, and dinners with different people and plenty of “see you later’s” in a handful of places (outside of Starbucks, on a street corner, in front of a subway stop, etc.). It only hit me a little bit later when making plans for a marathon catching-up session when I get back. Especially with my slightly younger friends, it’s crazy to think that they will have graduated, some in grad school and others starting their careers. 2 years is a really long time and a lot is going to change; I’m excited to see where everyone goes.

At the same time that I’m leaving my friends, I’m meeting new ones that will be going to Senegal with me. Our staging group has a facebook group and we’ve all been introducing ourselves. It seems like I’ll be going with agricultural volunteers (in addition to more small enterprise development kids). I’m really looking forward to meeting everyone and seeing how everyone’s personalities match what they’ve said in their introductions. For the record, mine is really simple and says where I went to school, what I studied, and what I’m doing in Senegal.

As a final note, I’m seeing the group of PCVs (peace corps volunteers) grow quickly! I found out that I’m actually the 3^rd member of my sorority to join the peace corps (1 girl in South America and another awaiting her invitation and final placement). For a chapter that’s only 5 years old, 3 volunteers is pretty impressive (or so I think). I also learned that I may be greeted in Senegal by a 3^rd year volunteer who went to college in my hometown! I always thought it was a small world but wow. This volunteer has already been extremely helpful with packing lists and I’m so grateful.

Okay, I’ll end this kind of boring post with a peace corps fun fact: there are almost 200,000 returned peace corps volunteers (RPCVs) and Chris Matthews is one of them!