Waiting...

I feel like I'm in limbo, just hanging out here, waiting to hear from the Peace Corps, waiting to graduate, waiting to move out of my apartment, waiting waiting waiting.  I have very little that I have to do to finish the semester, I'm mostly just killing time and wasting hours online. 

I have one presentation to give tomorrow, one paper to write, one final to take. Then I'm finished with college.  It's taken me 6 years to earn 2 Bachelors Degrees, I'm looking forward to being done with school (for now anyway). 

The next several months I want to spend lots of time with friends and family. I'll probably really annoy a few people to get together, so prepare yourselves! :)

I love this song

Live Like We're Alive by Nevertheless

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7g2T1fJtFQ

Listen to it, I'll wait.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7g2T1fJtFQ

I especially like the lines "We're here only for a second and then we're gone when we least expect it so do more than survive. Let's live like we're alive!"

Driving with a friend this weekend, I turned the radio up loud and sang along to the chorus of this song.  We had been talking about the Peace Corps, and I was trying to explain that I know that things will change when I come back.  I know that I'll have crazy-but-impossible-to-explain experiences that will have become a part of me.  I know that joining the PC will be hard and challenge me everyday.  I know some people wont understand, but I want all of that.  I don't want to just be surviving this world, I want to really live in it, to see and experience and change it.  Years from now I want to be able to look back and be able to say more than "I heard about that," I want to tell my grandkids "I was there, and this is what I did." 

Weekly Challenge

My friend Atesh and I (and anyone else who wants to join) are started a new challenge each week.  Some ideas we've thrown around include: making soap, reading a classic novel, being vegan, new exercises, etc etc etc.  She's going to blog about it each week, that alone will be a challenge for her.  I'm looking forward to it, I'm looking up homemade soap recipes in another tab as I write this blog post.  If you have any ideas of things we should try please comment about it so we have lots of things to choose from. 

I've also been reading up on blogs by current and returned Peace Corps volunteers to start thinking about what I need to buy or collect to take with me abroad.  Since I'll be teaching, someone mentioned that I should bring stickers and silly bands as small rewards for my students.  I'd also like to take balloons so I can make balloon animals for the kids and embroidery thread to make friendship bracelets.  If anyone wants to donate to my collection of things to take, that would be much appreciated. 

Other than that I've had a pretty boring week.  This weekend was busy, what with the FE Exam on Saturday (that maybe went okay, minus the fire drill 90 minutes in to the 8 hour exam) and SWE Banquet on Sunday (that went great!).  Anything I have to do this week will feel like a vacation!

"Coffee" with Dr. Skaggs

It's always fun when you get together with an old friend and catch up on things.  The telling of stories reminds you about what's happened in your own life and how the little things add up.  I've experienced a snowball effect with so many different aspects in my life that I didn't recognize until I was telling Jennifer about the last year or so.  I needed that. Thanks again for "coffee" (aka Pepsi and donuts).

As far as the Peace Corps goes, I finally passed the medical review process!! Celebration!!  Within the next 6 weeks I should get a letter from the Placement Office with an official invitation to serve.  After that, I'll have about 8 weeks before I leave.  It's real, it's really happening! Words cannot describe how excited I am.  :-D

One small damper on my excitement is the FE Exam this Saturday.  It's pathetic how little I've studied for this 8 hour exam, but I'm banking on UK's 98% pass rate for mechanical engineers.  I'll let you know how that goes.

To get excited again, I watched this Peace Corps PSA: http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.media.psa.television  Check it out and I hope it makes you want to sign up too!

I've lost blood and skin this week

Yesterday I donated a pint of blood, so don't be too concerned about the title of this post. 

And then today I accidentally got super glue on my hands (again) that I had to peel off.  This stuff doesn't like to go peacefully, it takes a layer of skin. All thanks to my senior design, which is probably one of the most time-consuming projects of the year, one of the most messy, but definitely the most interesting.  I'm glad I've been involved with these remote controlled airplanes.

Yesterday I also had lunch with a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and several other applicants in various stages of the application process.  It was nice to hear that I am not alone in all this waiting.  Exciting to hear that some people already know where they will be serving. But nervous to think about packing and living without what we Americans think of as "basic" essentials.  When questioned about showering and deodorant, the RPCV said "deodor-what?"  So that's definitely something I'll be sure to pack plenty of.

The next 2 weeks are going to be some of the busiest of my college career.  I'm helping organize a banquet for a club, work 20 hours this weekend, have 2 tests early next week, senior design needs to build 2 planes, and I'm taking the FE Exam next weekend.  Wish me luck with that, the Fundamentals of Engineering exam is a 8 hour test that will cover everything I (should) have learned in college.  I'm a little nervous about it, I've not studied much.  I'm less encouraged to study after one of my tenured professors announced to the whole class "Don't study, you all won't fail. Civil's fail. Electrical's fail. But Mechanicals don't fail."  I value her opinion, but that's not a risk I'm willing to take.  Time to hit the books.

Just in case I die young

I StumbleUpon'd this poem and instantly thought about posting it.  Just in case I die young (meaning any age before 107) I hope everyone who loves me can remember this poem by Mary Elizabeth Frye and be comforted. 

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am in a thousand winds that blow,

I am the softly falling snow.

I am the gentle showers of rain,

I am the fields of ripening grain.

I am in the morning hush,

I am in the graceful rush

Of beautiful birds in circling flight,

I am the starshine of the night.

I am in the flowers that bloom,

I am in a quiet room.

I am in the birds that sing,

I am in each lovely thing.

Do not stand at my grave bereft

I am not there. I have not left.

To not put all my eggs in one basket

Several people, especially my sisters, have encouraged me to apply for other jobs after I graduate and not rely solely on the Peace Corps.  All I really want to do is join the PC, and I'm busy so I can always make up an excuse to do anything other than applying elsewhere.  But it is solid advice, no matter where I really really wanted to work I'd apply for several jobs, so I've started doing just that.  Yesterday I had a phone interview that seemed to go well, I'm moving up to their HR person for an in-person interview soon.  I've applied a online to a couple places around Atlanta, since I'll know someone in Georgia, but I've yet to hear back from any of them.  I'm considering applying for jobs in New York City, I had a great time visiting there last week and made some wonderful friends.  Maybe I'll post about that trip, and add a few pictures. :)

Graduation is in about 6 weeks; for months my friends and fellow seniors have talked about their job interviews and offers to different companies.  I just smile and nod and explain the super long application process for the PC.  I'm taking the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam in April so I can eventually be a Professional Engineer and add initials after my name on documents.  The test will be killer, but I'm kind of excited about the initials actually.

I'm really trying to focus on this semester and finishing school strong, but with my future up in the air it's hard to concentrate.  Case and point, it took my like an hour to type out these measly paragraphs for a post. Oh well, more to come next time.