Walking a Straight Line

Written at 2 pm on June 18th while waiting to board my flight from San Diego to San Francisco.

Shuffling through the airport with a duffle filled with backpacking gear, twenty pounds of daily needs on my back, and hopefully less than fifty in my rolling bag, I’m on my way to San Francisco. Staging starts today, which also marks the beginning of my Peace Corps service. I will be working 24/7 and expected to represent the USA accordingly. Although my often disgust with the states doesn’t exactly inspire a good representation, my sincere respect and admiration for the goals of Peace Corps does. I should show up to registration by 6 pm dressed in business casual with a basic knowledge of what will be expected of me. The guts and glory of the expectations are to be relayed over the next 48 hours at staging, however, these have already been enumerated in previous paperwork. 

Peace Corps has ten core expectations (abbreviated below):

  1. Prepare your life for a full 27 month commitment. (Although China is a 24 month commitment)
  2. Commit to improving the quality of life of others according to their needs by way of sharing your skills.
  3. Serve where, how, and when Peace Corps asks you to and do so with flexibility.
  4. Recognize the success of your work is dependent on integrating with your local community.
  5. Recognize that you are responsible 24/7 for your personal conduct and professional performance.
  6. Engage in cooperation with your community.
  7. Follow the rules of Peace Corps and your Local community.
  8. Be safe (to put it simply).
  9. Recognize you are a representative of the USA and will be perceived as such.
  10. Represent the USA in an honest (read as good) light. 

You can read the complete wording of these expectations as part of the China Welcome Book which I was required to read and covers in depth a lot of what these mean: http://files.peacecorps.gov/manuals/welcomebooks/CNWB366.pdf

Fortunately, my bag was well under the 50 lbs, 36 lbs actually. Which is weird since I weighed it this morning at 50 lbs and have not taken anything out. Maybe that was in kg. Either way they took my two checked bags and charged me nothing. I had to pay for my carry-on the last time I flew. Strange. Federal Gov. perks (they booked the flight)?

I now sit mostly comfortable at the gate. My headphones are neatly packed away in fear of a repeat of my flight last month from Madison to San Diego; I didn’t hear the announcements and completely missed my flight. I was there but didn’t board. It took me the rest of the afternoon to complain that into a laughingly embarrassing memory. 

So here I sit enjoying the sounds of an inappropriately grumpy grandma shouting orders at her three grandkids as their pleas for attention get misinterpreted as bad behavior. The grandma was sure enjoying her tablet, though.

So here I sit, an adequate five rows away to allow for a white noise barrier between me and some unfortunate kids. My new neighbors are quietly staring into empty space waiting for a line to interrupt their distant gazes. 


In 2 hours I will land in San Francisco to begin an adventure that began seven months ago with a heart that is alternately racing in exhilaration, anxiety, nostalgia, and excitement.

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