Bounce House, Swimming, Pinata, Oh My!

So since I was put on the spot yesterday and didn't really say much, I will begin my first post with a huge THANK YOU!  

Thank you to everyone who made it out yesterday to my going away party.  If I do say so myself, it was quite the party! At one point, one of my friends asked me, "Who are all of these people?!" and it was amazing to look around and see people from all different parts of my life: family, friends I have known since elementary school, college friends making the long drive down for the day, friends of the family who have watched me grow up, friends who I consider my second family or have become part of the family...all there to support me (I guess people like me haha) and I couldn't help but feel more loved and lucky to have such support and encouragement behind me.

The past few months I have been living in a state of no absolutes.  I was always just taking one step at a time whether it was hitting the submit button on my application back in February, preparing for my interview in March, or sending that email that said "I, Sara Nowakowski, accept my position to serve in the Peace Corps."

Now, I continue that trend of taking it one step at a time.  To be honest, I still don't really feel like I am going anywhere yet as I begin packing (well soon will begin packing, in honesty I will probably procrastinate on that for a while despite my mom's constant reminding of it), then I will just be taking a plane to visit Philadelphia, then that final plane to Africa.

The most common questions I receive are: "Aren't you scared?" and "Are you ready?"

To the first question my typical response is "I am every emotion."  Scared for the unknown, yet excited for it. Nervous about what I am going to encounter, yet anxious to begin a new adventure.  Terrified of a complete and abrupt change of every part of my daily routine and a huge distance between my usual support system, yet thrilled for the challenge to go beyond my usual comfort zone to test myself and just see what happens, to just LIVE and experience an adventure that is for sure going to include its hard, harder, and hardest times,   but also its best, better, and bestest times, all memories I will never forget!

Which leads in to the question "Are you ready?"  Typically, my response here is, "I don't think I will ever be totally ready."  How can one be totally ready for something for which she has no idea what to expect?  From past volunteers, that is the most common advice I have received is: try to go in to your service with no expectations because it is not going to be anything like you expect.  So this is something I have been trying to hold to, to have no expectations and, frankly, I don't know where I would even begin such expecting.  And that is a big part of why I want to do this, to enter the unknown, something I know very little about, to LEARN about a new culture, lifestyle, community, country, language, and myself.

Everyone says "Now is the perfect time in your life to travel and do something like this."  And I agree: Now is A Time for Adventure...