Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Amazingly, the end

My Peace Corps journey has concluded.  I don't know how to feel about it, honestly.  I thought I'd only be ecstatic, but instead, I feel....everything.  Here's an excerpt of what I wrote during a  layover in Brussels last Friday:

Wow.  The last week.  The last two years.  What a wild ride, and you made it.  Currently sitting all by myself in Brussels, anticipating the hellishly long & boring day here, wondering if I dreamt all of it.  Leaving the bureau turned out to be a LOT more emotional than I ever anticipated.  I really thought I could get out of Benin without crying, but c'etait faux!  Following my descent into tears inside the airport in Cotonou, I got to talking to a Beninese dude with ties to Kerou (where three PCVs live), a perfectly random & distracting conversation. Somehow I never pictured it all ending this way - or ending at all, really.  Already I'm seeing Benin and my service nostalgically, sans bush taxi rides, unmotivated work partners, etc.  No regrets about any of it.  Let's hope this next adventure proves as exciting, terrifying, and worthwhile.  Allons-y, or as my dear friend Nina would say, "get it, get it."