Invitation to Peace Corps

This is my first time posting on here, and I'm slowly realizing I have no talent for online social networks, i.e. facebook so bare with me. haha

So I recently got accepted to the Peace Corps!! Which is the most exciting thing that could possibly happen in my life. I'll be leaving for Senegal in March which is just 3 months away!!! Amazing right?! I'm really nervous, and super excited. I have to admit December has been the most amazing month for me! I graduated December 17th, and I did it in 4 years, I know that's not uncommon but I'm really proud of myself, I got accepted to the Peace Corps December 17th, then Christmas, which is always exciting because I love Christmas songs. And my birthday is in January, the big 22! I feel like everything is falling into place and I don't know what is going to happen next and I'm so excited to find out.

So my time-line with the Peace Corps; this is what helped me when I was applying and waiting so I hope anyone who google searches their questions and this site pops up it helps out. I submitted my application in June, from there I was contacted by a recruiter who was really helpful with all my questions. We scheduled my phone interview July 15th (some people have in person interviews this is determined by location I'm assuming). My recruiter went out of town a few days later so she said someone else would contact me stating I'm nominated, this never happened but I was set up with a application tool kit account that you can check the status of your application and this stated I was nominated and I'd be receiving a medical kit to be completed. Once she got back in town and called me I had already received the medical kit so we were able to talk about that which was nice having the kit and direct questions based on it. I was originally nominated for Community Development in Sub-Sahara Africa. Community development because of my degree, I had previous volunteer experience all over the board, but majority of it wasn't for a long period of time that I could be classified as an 'expert' or advanced in the material.

So I completed the medical kit, which actually took me quite a while and I fedex'd it to the office because I was worried it took too long. I sent it to them towards the end of August. It was hard to schedule my appointments and I had to go to a different doctor for a few, especially the gyno because mine was booked for months which isn't unusual. I had a lot of my immunizations and some I didn't understand and I had difficulty tracking places down in Idaho that actually gave them out so that was frustrating. I received a letter from the medical review a few weeks later saying I was missing information, something about the medication I currently use. It was easier to just go to the doctor's office with the form then calling, so that was my trick durin this whole process. Oh and my dermatologist was out of town too so I had to deal with some other man who didn't know anything about my issues so that was also hard.

P.S. the medical examination is intense. But the doctors are really understanding and I got a discount or not charged on a lot of things because they were so proud of me. Honestly once you tell people it's for the Peace Corps their eyes just brighten and they're so supportive it was so encouraging.

After this part they'll let you know if there are any problems or if you're cleared to work in any environment. I was cleared, then transferred to a placement officer. I called the placement officer after a few weeks, this is the part that normally takes a while because they have so many applications to review and it's done by the the time period you're nominated for. So people were leaving in January and they were reviewing those applications. I called the placement officer and she said I'd begin getting mine reviewed in a few weeks, we were into late October at this time. The PO told me to submit my updated volunteer resume and this will help so then they wont have to contact me again and just go straight through the review. I heard back in late November stating they needed my new transcript stating that I graduated and my degree conferral. I still haven't been able to get this to them because my school will not post this until January 10th.

December 18th they updated my application online stating Congratulations you've been invited you'll be receiving your invitation soon it has been sent out December 17th! I received my invitation and information December 24th, and I was nervous that because you have 10 days to get back to them to accept or decline the invitation that with the holidays I wouldn't be able to accept in time. My PO emailed me today (Dec 27) that I actually had 10 days once I RECEIVE the package so that was reassuring. The packet tells you about the country and the day you'd leave, information about your project or at least what you're doing. So I was nominated for community development and I got accepted to do Environmental Education and Preventive Health.

Between the nomination and invitation process I was volunteering with different non profits to be more competitive. Specifically I started to volunteer with a non profit HIV/AIDS awareness agency. The non profit did free testing for the community. I plan on staying with the agency until I leave for Senegal.

I found a page on facebook for other peace corps volunteers who I'll be going to Senegal with so thats comforting.

Alright. That is my first post/novel. Enjoy!