Paseos and Grad School Stuff

I figured maybe I should give an actual little update rather than posting my self-indulgent hippie-esque ruminations.

I’m pretty much just chillin’ out over here. Nothing groundbreaking. I’m trying to hang out with my Pana-peeps and my Peace Corps friends as much as possible before I depart from these beautiful people in a couple of months.

This past weekend I went to a few different sites of other Peace Corps Volunteers in Panama Este (the next province over from me). I pass through Panama Este every time I bus to Panama City, but I hardly ever stop through and actually get to know the place! Welp, now’s the time for stopping to smell the roses. I hung out with a couple of the newer Peace Corps Volunteers who I hadn’t gotten to meet yet and continued to learn more about the geography and people of Eastern Panama.

I’m hoping to continue in my paseos and make some trips to the sites of a few other PCVs before I leave in April.

In grad school news, I’ve finally gotten some news back—and it’s good news! I was just recently notified that I’ve been admitted to the Maxwell School of Public Affairs at Syracuse University in their Master’s of Public Administration program (MPA). It’s the highest ranked public affairs program in the country, so I’m very excited that I’ve been admitted there. I’ve applied for admittance to some pretty competitive programs, so while I know I’m not out of the woods yet with respect to admissions/funding decisions, I am pumped to start off the notification season with some good news.

Michigan also just emailed me. I think they're going to call my cell phone tomorrow afternoon. They want to talk to me for about 20 minutes in order to get to 'know me better' during their fellowship decisions process. (They're tryna pretend it's not about the C.R.E.A.M.)

Also, one of my Peace Corps friends just emailed me out of the blue about a connection for a new job with this really cool NGO. I'm kind of excited to hear more about the position (jobs like this don't just fall in your lap!), but I also know that taking a job would mean deferring grad school I'm like AHHH! DECISIONS! Future! I'm not ready for you yet!

I’ll certainly be posting as I go through this new adventure of closing out my Peace Corps service and figuring out my next step! Things are starting to cook up and it's getting pretty exciting. Stay tuned.

--Aja

What I’ve been reading lately:

End of Poverty – Jeffrey Sachs

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safran Foer

Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.

You guys, I don’t even know how to update you right now. What am I doing? Where am I? What’s going on?

It’s February 6^th. I finish my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer on April 10^th.

And again, we come to one of those big transitional moments in life. High School graduation. Study abroad. College Graduation. Peace Corps. Leaving Peace Corps. As a 20-something American, these times tend to come up now and again for my demographic. And every time is does, I think the world has just turned on its head.

But in truth, el mundo sigue girando. It just keeps spinning on its axis, as if it paid no mind to the fact that I’m about two months away from repatriating back to my home country, taking a trip to Colombia, gearing up for grad school, passing on leadership of an organization to a fresh set of hands, and saying goodbye (or see you later?) to some of the best friends I’ve ever had in my life.

How would I even begin to eulogize this experience?

I’m not going to try. If you want to hear me monologue about it, you’ll just have to sit down and have a few drinks with me in person.

Suffice it to say though, while I do feel ready to move on in April, I am grateful for everything this experience has given to me and everything it’s taught me.

Enough of that, though. It’s not April! I have a couple more months to enjoy all that the Wild East of Panama has to offer!

What I’ve been reading:

Economic Gangsters – Ray Fisman

Unbroken – Laura Hillenbrand

Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen

The Art of Racing in the Rain – Garth Stein