Becoming Official

This morning the fourteen trainees of Peace Corps Group 75 officially became Peace Corps volunteers. We all gathered together with our family members from Falevao and the Peace Corps staff and current volunteers for a very touching ceremony where we committed ourselves and were sworn in as volunteers. It's pretty incredible to look back at the past two months and how far we have come, how much we have learned, how much we have grown as individuals and as a group on our journey to becoming prepared for this moment. And now here it is and this part of our Peace Corps journey is at a close. The funny little things like receiving our ID cards, our medical kits and our bikes really cement the upcoming transformation in our roles. We have our one last day together at the hotel in Apia and then in the morning we will each be taken to our new homes to begin our lives as volunteers. Yesterday we began drafting our 90 day work plans with our local counterparts and really started to think about the direction our first few months as volunteers would be taking. It's very exciting and really makes one realize how much the past two months have been about laying the groundwork from which to proceed into the real volunteer experience that we will be immersing ourselves in. I am so excited to be moving tomorrow to my new home and beginning my new life here! It will of course be bittersweet as it means saying goodbye and leaving behind a lot of what we have come to know and rely on for support with constantly being together as a group and having the trainers and Peace Corps staff there with us constantly for guidance and support. I feel like I've just graduated and am ready to go out in the world on my own and see what I can do... and I'm so ready for the challenge and the opportunity it presents!

*i just posted some photos from the drop-off a while back so you can check them out if you're interested. as well as photos from today, of course :)