Today, I swore in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. This day has been several long years, and several even longer months in the making. I have wanted to be a PCV more or less since I learned what the organization was about. I had wonderful role models as inspiration, fabulous friends to support me, and a family committed to helping me in any way.
Although we are all excited to become volunteers, few of my fellow stage members feel as strongly as I do about swearing-in specifically. Many say that taking this oath of office doesn’t mean much, because it is the same oath of office that many others have taken, including post office workers and the like. For me, taking this oath has a lot more meaning.
Even though I am not charged with the same mission that my brother, both grandfathers, great uncle, and so many other family members agreed to when they took their oath, I am still charged with the goal of supporting and defending the United States.
Some of the people I talked to about the Peace Corps told me to “have a good trip,” many told me to “not get Ebola,” some told me I was crazy, but still some others “got it,” as my mom likes to say. One of those people was a man I met at a campground in Montana, as I made my way throughout the US before coming here. He used to be a Marine Corps Infantryman. We talked about how different our two services will be, but also about how similar they can be. We are working towards the same goal, peace for the US and peace for the world at large. He told me we’re not so different, that we’re “working on two sides of the same coin.”
Another person who “got it,” was my grandfather. One of the things he was adamant about for many of his last few months was that he wanted to see me take my oath of office. Unfortunately, it’s Peace Corps policy not to have family members at swearing-in, even if it wasn’t an expensive plane flight away. And although he’s gone now, I really felt like he got to be here with me today as I took my oath. He and so many others stood behind me and gave me the strength to make this crazy commitment.
Maybe that helps explain why I’m here to some people who have slightly different world views to me. It’s all about service: to my country, to Mali, to the people of the world, and especially to the children of the world. It’s about bringing peace to Mali, to the US, to the world. And it’s about having a connection to all the people who have made that same commitment.