Teacher Heart: The Perfect Fit
People often use the term "transition" to describe life after serving in the Peace Corps. I don't like it because "transition" implies an end, a goal, a destination. And now, having been back in America for almost two years (the same length of time that I served, which is an unsettling statistic), Pohnpei is nowhere near a faint memory. Each and every day my mind wanders to those people and experiences. They are constantly woven into my perception of the world and my daily decision-making. I regularly try to include anecdotes about my time on the island in my conversations, not as some Third Goal initiative (Peace Corps Third Goal is to educate Americans about people in other countries), but simply because it is such a big part of my story. And as any RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer) will tell you, these sorts of anecdotes are typically met with blank stares and fake encouragement. This is no fault of the listener, but simply a symptom of having not experie...