Wake Up

I woke up at 630 this morning to the sound of a foreign alarm. The lack of sleep over the last week or so was hanging over me. Still confused, I hear Lisle, my roommate for the night who set the alarm, say "time to go." It was time to leave for nepal.

My name is Luke Johnson and after a few long flights I am going to be landing in the country that I will serve for the next two years. Yesterday, I met the other 30 Peace Corps volunteers that I am told will become my new family. So far, after exchanging stories of our longest flights and all the airports we've been in, getting a sense of the morals and interests that have compelled these people here, and a impromptu yoga session in an airport, they more or less fit the description I concocted of Peace Corps volunteers. This is a good thing. I am lucky to be joining them.

I have also been told, several times, that things will be tough. And during the last 15 hours between chicago and Hong Kong, I have been able to process this more after leaving. At the airport I hugged my Mom and Dad whom I've been living with for the better half of the summer after graduating college. I also said a goodbye to my girlfriend and best friend for many years, Melaina. The peace corps really does advise against signing up and planning on continuing a relationship through service. The reasoning is that either the distance and nature of service will end your relationship, or the other way around, and you will terminate your service to go back to your loved one. Personally, I think I'd be more inclined to quit without Melaina, she is a force of conviction to be reckoned with. Being without her would just be a dumb choice.

I have traveled a bit before. For the longest of my trips I spent 4 months in Tanzania. I now remember the feeling of acclimating to a new world. Walking through the airport now, taking a moment for myself and by myself, I see the structure around me shifting. Like dough in a bag being flattened out, the world around me will soon shift, and  I must too. I can see some of my characteristics changing shape and some perhaps immaleable, pressing uncomfortably against the walls shifting around me. These shapes are culture, society, geography; these are the thrills and challenges of travel.

If I ended here, I would be doing myself a disservice. When I walk around the airport I am smiling and have a subtle jump in my step. When I talk with my fellow volunteers it's with excitement in my eyes and enthusiasm in my voice. In my mind I am processing all of this. But somewhere else there is an immeasurable fire of naive excitement. I am finally on my way to doing good things.