Where in the world is Megan Humphreys?

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

In the not-so-distant future...

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect
any position of the U.S. government or Peace Corps.

The end of service always seemed so far away. Life after Peace Corps - I can't imagine it. Probably graduate school. I'm looking forward to studying and learning again to a degree I wouldn't have thought possible when I graduated with my bachelors degree two years ago. Two years.
I suddenly feel like I need to prepare for the next 30 years of my life when I haven't finished preparing for my English class next week. I need to take the GRE, I need to decide what grad schools I want to apply to, I need to figure out whether I should go to law school or just get a masters in International Relations, and I also need to make sure I buy a can of tuna for my dinner before the pulpería closes at 7.
My head is still in Costa Rica; I'm still figuring out the Costa Rican slang and the names of all the fruits that grow wild here. I'm still trying to get the 4th graders and their parents to commit to Junior Achievement classes and start a Community Credit Bank in a nearby town. And yet I feel like the end of my service is flying at me. I haven't done everything I wanted to do yet. I haven't helped any micro-entrepreneurs start a business yet. I haven't changed the world yet.
When I started my Peace Corps service, I set the bar for success so high I couldn't even see it. Some days I feel like I've failed; like I haven't lived up to my most unrealistic expectations. But on other days, I realize that I didn't fail; I just succeeded in a way I that I didn't understand a year ago.