The Analogy of the keys....and other tidbits of wisdom.

Did you pick up the sarcasm in that? There most likely is not much wisdom in anything that I say...at least not yet (maybe the Peace Corps will impart more wisdom on me over the next 27 months). We leave Los Angeles in less than four hours, so It's kind of getting real finally. We have done a little bit of training, more like basic introductions, over the past 24 hours.  We turned in all of our paper work, and when she announced this morning "Congratulations. You are officially in the system of the U.S. government as a Peace Corps Volunteer," I almost cried with excitement! But as I left Kentucky, I almost cried when I left my house key at the Anderson's house. Why? Because that was my last key!!! I sold my car a couple of months ago so I no longer had my car keys. I gave my grandmother back her car key (because she was being so kind and letting me use it since I sold mine).  I gave my parent's back their house key. And then my last key, my house key, was officially going to be returned to the Andersons! It was a very sad experience because I looked at my two bags and 75 lb backpack, and thought, this is pretty much everything I own in the world. I don't know why getting rid of my keys became such a deep experience for me, but it was in that moment that I realized, you know we give up a lot of material possessions and money and whatever else to go to the Peace Corps and serve as volunteers, but what we will get out of this experience will be so much more than our worldly possessions could ever bring to us.  I'm so excited! In less than 24 hours I will be in Samoa. Apparently, we will be greeted with the press from the US Embassy and a paparazzi of sorts as we walk off of the plane, so that's kind of intimidating. And as my mom can attest, I don't love the attention so much in big groups and in the form of news media, but I think it will be a warm welcome which will make the experience that much better from the start.