The Day Before Lift Off

It's Tuesday, April 21st and I'm leaving for staging tomorrow in D.C.  Then on Friday, my birthday (April 24th), I'm leaving for Kyrgyzstan. What a mix of emotions. I have points where I'm super excited, confident, and ready to do this. Other moments I'm like, 'Oh, man! Big change soon.' It's a constant nerves and excitement battle.

I had my going away party Sunday and the support from family and friends was incredible. I will miss them all but know they are rooting for me in the toughest of times. It was great to see everyone and I created one of the coolest keepsake momentos that will join me in my travels. I had an idea of everyone signing a poster related to Colorado or Denver. I went to the wonderful IHeartDenver store in the Pavilions mall downtown and had a hard time choosing artwork. I ended up with this awesome piece.

Today I also came across this post about me on the SouthWest Regional Peace Corps blog. Peace Corps highlights all their volunteers to show the diversity in backgrounds and interests of the people joining. I'm honored they chose to highlight me!

The post explores exactly what I will be doing and some of my reasons for joining the Peace Corps. Take a look here.

I also finally finished packing. I just started yesterday, but boy was it hard. Fitting two years worth of stuff in just two bags, one carry-on and a back pack. WOAH! I thought packing for six months to Italy was hard. This just trumped that. I did succeed and here is my life for the next two years summed up in four bags.

As I start this journey, bear with me. I probably won't have time to update on my blog, nor the interwebs as I figure things out in country. But I'll try to post that at least I made it and I'm alive. As soon as I know my permanent site address, I'll post it here for letters and packages. Thanks, everyone and see you in two years!