Arkansas –> Peace Corps Morocco

*I found this in my drafts as I have just returned from a 6 week trip in the Middle East (which I will take the next week to write about!) but I am going to leave the post as is 🙂

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Big, big news.

This girl is returning to the most incredible country in the world (Morocco, of course) in a few months. A few weeks ago, I got accepted into the Peace Corps!

The funny thing about it is, the Peace Corps has always been on my radar but it was never something I actually thought would happen. I don’t feel qualified in any means, at merely 21 years old, to teach high school English to High School Moroccan students – but I guess someone, somewhere in the big office decided they saw some potential in me. Maybe it has been the 3 years of Arabic I have attempted to master? Or my internship last summer in D.C.? Either way, lets hope the 3 months of training in Rabat will teach me how to teach others.

In celebration of landing a job, I’ve realized I’ll be leaving a place I’ve grown to love with all my heart. The last couple months I’ve found myself just sitting on campus and people watching, or taking a few extra minutes to get places so I don’t feel the need to rush. So, here are some of my favorite pictures I’ve taken in Arkansas in the last four years of University.

College was an amazing chapter in my life. There’s no amount of words I can fix together to explain the amount of growing and self-realization that occurred. The people I’ve met. The memories I’ve made.

A large majority of my last semester was spent worrying about where I would end up after graduation; yet here I am. Preparing for the next two years in another country.

Life never goes the way we plan. And I wouldn’t have it any other way!

 

Interning in D.C.

This past summer, I had the most incredible opportunity to intern at the United States Senate.

I’m still mad at myself for not writing while I was there, as I did SO MANY cool things, but I’m making up for that now.

First things first, D.C. really is a messed up city. In many good, bad, and beautiful ways. The hustle and bustle of business men and women in suits walking towards the capitol doing big, important things; mixed together with the onslaught of unbelievably slow-paced, wide-eyed tourists, and then top it off with the high numbers of homeless people . . . D.C. is a conglomeration of a little bit of everything. It can be said that D.C. has something fun to do every. single. day. I loved it – and would absolutely move back in a heart beat (if I have the money).

I could go running struggling, from my Airbnb down by Potomac Metro and within a couple miles make it to the WWII Memorial and Washington Monument. (Airbnb was my way of saving money and avoiding the $2,000 a month rent for intern housing in Foggy Bottom).

Really though, money is the key part in all of this unfortunately. I’ve had a couple job offers in D.C. available to me after graduating, but I know that I simply can’t afford to live there.

Especially considering that D.C. is the type of place where connections are everything, there wasn’t a week that went by that I wasn’t meeting someone for drinks or dinner to discuss future career options. The expenses rack up quickly.

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I’m also not ignorant to the fact that I am extremely blessed to have afforded this internship at the hands of my parents. Without their monetary support, an experience like this would have been completely out of the question. I will continuously critique the Washington elite and Congressional internships in the sense that I believe making internships unpaid (in the most expensive city in the U.S.), it automatically keeps rich families ahead of the curve and within the elitist circle. There is absolutely no way that poor families could manage to send their children to an unpaid internship in this city, giving them a chance to break the cycle – and for that, I will always question the process.

Aside from this, working in the Senate was one of the most rewarding and eye-opening experiences of my entire life. I interned with Arkansas Senator Boozman, and although I am an avid Democrat and he is Republican, Senator John Boozman is one of the most genuine and hard working senators I had the pleasure of meeting.

One day, hopefully, I’ll be living in D.C. – but until then, I’ll be gallivanting the world!