I wanted to begin my first post with landing in Mongolia as a Peace Corps Trainee (PCT), but the journey began so much sooner than that. In case anyone who is reading this is considering becoming a PCV at some point, I just wanted to briefly touch on the whole application process.

There is a reason why the Peace Corps has a wonderful reputation: It is competitive and thorough with an amazing set of goals. As you can imagine, the application process may be a little challenging. My experience with it began simply. I applied to “where most needed” on the website. The entire application honestly may have only taken 30 minutes. Once my application was under review (only weeks after submission), it was only another week or two after that when they asked me to signup for an interview. It all went very quickly. I hardly had a chance to inform my parents that I applied to the Peace Corps before I was signing up for an interview (“Just for fun!” I told them…). It was a day and a half after the interview that I received an invitation to serve in Mongolia. Given only three days to accept, I called my best friend to tell her I would not be able to stand up in her wedding in October, gave my parents one last chance to talk me out of my crazy idea (they respectfully gave me the “we support your decision” bit), and then I checked the little box in the email that read, “I accept.” From that point on, “simple” quickly turned into “stressful.”

Again, you can imagine the detailed information an organization who is paying to send you to the other side of the world might want. I had doctor, dentist, and eye appointments. I sent in my fingerprints for a background check. I filled out aspiration statements, completed readings and quizzes, and eventually dealt with banking, insurance, and booking the flight through the Peace Corps travel agents. In between these tasks and working towards finishing my schoolwork to earn my diploma, I was learning Mongolian through the app and website the Peace Corps provided. It was a lot. For anyone who was not 100% committed to serving, I doubt there was a finish line. As I sit in my ger (yurt) in Mongolia, officially a PCT nearly finished with her orientation week and about to meet her Mongolian host family in less than 48 hours, I can tell you with incredible certainty: The process is worth it.

I breezed through many details, so please contact me if you’d like any more information on the process! Please keep in mind that this is my personal experience–many other PCTs I am with have their own unique “jumping through hurdles” stories they could give you.

I want to end with a conversation I had with a fellow PCT the other day. He was wondering why I made posts on social media telling everyone where I was going and what I was doing. In his case, he joined the Peace Corps strictly for him and those he would serve, no one else. It was a precious journey that he was committing to. It did not involve anyone else, and he wanted to keep it that way. He felt his service was more important if it remained off of social media. While I completely understand and support his decision, I tend to see it a little differently. I want as many people as possible to know about Peace Corps. I truly admire their goals and aspirations, and I am humbled to be apart of it. If my advice, stories, pictures, etc. can inspire others to turn their “I wish I had done that” into “I’m going to apply,” then I want to do that. I am excited to share my experiences along the way, and I hope you all will enjoy experiencing a bit of it too on this blog.

Here’s to “just for fun” turning into commitment.

Here’s to packing life up and flying to the other side of the world.

Here’s to the beginning of accepting the toughest job I’ll ever love.

Emilie