This is the second post of a series intended to retroactively document my decision and application process leading up to my invitation to the Peace Corps.
Easter weekend 2009 my parents drove to New Jersey to visit my grandfather in the hospital. My brother was working all day so I took my little sister to Easter dinner. I decided it would be a good time to talk with her and let her know what I was working on. I started, "Shannon, I have something serious I need to talk to you about." Her face lit up with excitement as she asked, "Ryan! Are you gay!." I explained that I thought I was going to apply for the Peace Corps, what that would mean, why I was doing it, and much her disappointment... that she still didn't have a gay brother.
About two weeks before my last day at the project site in Columbia, I spent a weekend in Brevard, NC, one of my favorite places on earth. As always the place just brought a certain calmness over me. My next day at work I had no fear me. First thing in the morning I walked into a mentors office and asked what I needed to do to get a letter of recommendation to work for another company. We talked about who to ask, how to ask, and by the end of the day it was done. Suddenly things were moving very fast. Within 2 days I'd ask for the other two recommendations.
The next weekend I told my little brother what I was up to. I don't remember if I told him at the time, but there was never a doubt in my mind that what I was going to miss most while away was being with the people I loved on the happiest day of their life. Along with a handful of lifelong friends, my brother was probably going to get married while I was away. I don't remember a lot of the conversation but think it was in my convertible driving home from church.
Steven's girlfriend Nichole heard about it shortly thereafter. I believe she mentioned it to me later that night.
I wrote my cross cultural essay on my blackberry during my brother's college graduation.
At this point I could have finished my application but they were still looking for folks to depart in the 2nd quarter of 2010; I didn't even want to be considered until fall because of the commitment I'd made to my next project assignment. Based on what I had seen of the schedule it looked as though we would peak in the summer, start commissioning, and be in the finishing stages by early fall. I'd continue working on the application but wasn't going to send in until June. In the meantime I was packing up my apartment, finalizing the purchase of my condo in Texas, moving to Texas, flying to California, and getting acquainted with my new job assignment.
My first weekend in California was a 3 day weekend, I was turning 25, and all my friends were 2000 miles away... so I drove Vegas. I had fun, but overall found the town a little disturbing. Just too much consumption of vices. The stock market had crashed in the past year; the country was in the middle of what we now call 'The Great Recession.' I had recently read a great article in 'Time' entitled 'The End of Excess: Is this crisis good for America?'; it examined craziness of how we had lived and how we were finally now learning that we could not keep living at that pace. I don't condemn letting loose and having a little fun, but the setting did provide me an opportunity to let the calling I'd been feeling contrast with the values of much of our nation.
Over the next week I finalized my application, and in the first week of June 2009 I sent it in.
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