Why I'm volunteering for the Peace Corps

The average age of a Peace Corps volunteer is 26 years old.  I’m in the 7% of volunteers over 50.  Let’s just say I’m more than twice and less then thrice the average.  As I write this I still have my normal computer job, living pretty much the typical middle class life in suburbia outside of St. Louis Missouri.

Each person is unique so nobody is really “typical”.  I have some quirks and experiences that are atypical.  Most profoundly, I lost my dear wife, best friend and best person I ever knew deeply.  Not lost exactly, I saw her die peacefully at home December 2012 after a long illness that she did not deserve.  She accepted God’s plan and offered her suffering even as she had a difficult time though it all.

Before my wife became seriously ill we volunteered together for the local Red Cross Disaster services and for our local St. Vincent de Paul Society (a Catholic charity to the poor that is typically based in the local parish).  We were going to do the Peace Corps together when the kids were grown.

So my wife is no longer physically present and our kids are out of college.  It is a good time for me to begin a new career, to take the next step.  The Peace Corps seems to be the best thing to do at this point in my life.

I’m currently patiently waiting for an invite that may not come for months to go off to someplace to do something for about 2 years. 

I don’t expect it to be easy.  I never liked getting a page from the Red Cross at 2 am on a winter morning but never regretted going out after I got back into bed.  I don’t expect the Peace Corps to be a government vacation.  I’m going to work, work hard – helping, learning, and sharing.

I know that volunteering is not always easy, is frequently stressful and commonly frustrating.  However, in my case helping other people it is the best way to be happy.

It is not the only way to be happy of course.  My family, friends, and faith are sources of happiness.  Money, nice house, car, stuff, stuff, and more stuff do not bring me happiness.  I thought they would.  When those things helped my wife and I raise a family I suppose these supported happiness.

Now, I find stuff empty.  I’m not faulting or judging anyone who finds their happiness in such things.  It just does not work for me at this time.

I think that God or the universe gives humans the ability to feel happy as a way of knowing that we are doing it right.  The trick is to find true happiness, grab it, and hang on.

In the Peace Corps I’ll likely be hot, sweaty, dirty, tired, frustrated, and sick from some parasite or another, while missing family and friends back home during my 27 months of training and service.  I expect many of the projects I'll try to do will fail or only half succeed.  I figure that some people will not like Americans, volunteers, or old white men for one reason or another.  Many people may not want my help.

But I also know that it is possible to be happy, truly, honestly, down to the bone, down to the bottom of your soul happy with such energy and connection that you are united with others, with the universe, and with God through it all.  I'll try to start with that.

I’ll still get angry, frustrated, and fly off into some stupid irrational rage from time to time.  I still do.  But I've found that these times happen less and less and for a shorter and shorter period of time as I live though difficulties and challenges.

I hope to be able to share the ups and down, the success and failures, of the experience with others directly and through this blog.

I'm taking this next step to be happy.  Helping other people is the best way for me to be happy.  If I write a particularly depressing entry, please remind me of what I know.

Thanks for reading.