Life is about Experiences, Don't Miss Any

Tonight I was up late watching the Germany Vs Spain world cup match. In Armenia it didn’t start till 11:30, so it didn’t end till around 1:30. Just before the game was over my host dad came home from a long trip out to another section of the country where he was selling Honey. He asked me to help him with something for 5 minutes before I went to bed, I agreed.

We were breaking down the back of his truck and I had to stand on top of our barn in the middle of the night waiting 25 minutes for him to loosen the bolts so he could hand me the planks of wood. I started to become frustrated, because I have language at 9 am, and this has been way passed 5 minutes.

After about 15 min of waiting, I started to walk around on the roof, and I just happened to look up. And what did I see? I saw a clear night sky, with every star imaginable shining and looking down at me. I stood in amazement, silently, just gauzing upward toward the heavens. It was quiet, dark, and unmistakably one of the best moments I have had since I have been in Armenia.

You could see every star that God has ever created, in every direction, they seemed endless. It was something I had never seen before. I mean sure, I have seen stars, but not in a sky that seemed to be showing them off to me. It was like I was being presented a gift, only for my eyes to see, and for me to share only with myself. I felt so infinitely small. They looked like little diamonds in the sky, and no I wont start singing a Beatles song.

But rather I would like to remind those that read this, take time out of each week to do something that just drops your jaw. Something that takes your breath away. These events are the ones that make you realize that, life is about experiences, and you only have one chance to get as many experiences as you can. Not only is it a big world, but that world is yours to discover. It is waiting for you. Whether it be a one day road trip through Washington state, or going to a festival and celebrating in a new country, or even teaching health in Armenia.

Few and far between come these moments when you realize that there is a bigger purpose, and that you can but only make a ripple in history, so how big do you want that ripple to be. I know that I wont change the world by teaching health in Armenia as a Peace Corps Volunteer. But I can affect all those that I meet and maybe change one small thing in their lives. And if you add every Peace Corps Volunteer, just in Armenia, and multiply it by how many lives they can affect in Armenia, then take those that were affected and spread the same change a little further, you get numbers that only a few in history have reached alone. And you get a ripple that went from a small village in Fantan, Armenia to a world wide effect. It happens everyday, you just don’t see it. Little ripples that combine with other little ripples, and that eventually become a big ripple, and creates change that took a small girl from a poor uneducated village, to Medical School, and returning to that village to educate, treat, and change that village. It is this affect we are trying to have on our small villages and students we teach. It is this effect that we sacrifice 2 years of our life for; not for the betterment of ourselves, but for the generational effect we could have on a village, town, or nation. This is why we do it, and for everyone at home still wondering why, now you know. So I dare you to do something that takes your breath away in the next 3 days. Something you have never done before, or something that gives you that feeling of escape I have been writing about.

The Peace Corps isn’t about finding myself out in the middle of an Armenian field, only to return home changed and a better individual. Will that happen, most likely, but not in a field, and not on purpose. It will happen through cold winters, struggling through conversations because we don’t speak the language very well, and giving in to letting go of the “I am from America and I need to fix everything” mentality. Let this experience, or whatever experience you are after, fix you. Let it get inside your soul, breath it deep into your lungs, and live in it as much as you can with your own eyes. No one can have that experience but you, so take it, make it yours, and don’t give it back. Keep it with you forever and let it change who you are deep inside of you. To me that is the true definition of fulfillment. And that is why we serve…..

"Be the change you wish to see in the world"

-Ghandi