“Why did you decide to apply for the Peace Corps?”

I get this question a lot, understandably, and I never know quite how to respond. I’ve had to constantly and carefully re-evaluate my motivation for applying for the Peace Corps over this year-long process, and it’s always come back to this: Because I can. And like the answer to the question, “Why do you do service?” my answer is basically the same: “Because I am young, able-bodied, and willing. Why wouldn’t I?” These wise words were spoken by an older friend in APO, the co-ed service fraternity that has been the most rewarding and time-consuming activity of my time in college.

In terms of why now, it’s because right now is the perfect time. I don’t have any debt or intense medical problems. I’ve never even owned a car.  Joining Peace Corps later in my life would be much more complicated, and I really admire people make to the decision to do Peace Corps years after graduating from college and need to quit their careers, sell their houses, etc. And professionally speaking, I need some experience before applying to grad schools for public health, and Peace Corps is the perfect opportunity.

So, why did I bother start the application process? My reasons go all over the place – and also involve a death. I hope that I am not being disrespectful in any way.

A few years ago, I was only vaguely aware of what the Peace Corps was. I had images of Americans running around in Africa, but that was about it. But, for some reason, I also knew that I wanted to do it. I knew that I wanted to take time off before grad school to get some experience and perspective, yet I wasn’t sure what to do. To put it as simply as possible, I wanted to serve my community while having the experience of a living in a completely different place and thereby learning about a different culture (I majored in anthropology.) . But, during my second and third years at UVA, I kept hearing negative things about Peace Corps from friends of friends who had served in the Peace Corps, and, surprisingly, from my very service-oriented friends in APO. I had started leaning towards doing an AmeriCorps program instead.

One day, while reading the blog of a friend in APO, I noticed a link on the side of her page – to another blog, belonging to her friend, who was serving in the Peace Corps in Benin. I casually browsed a few entries, becoming more and more interested as I read. My initial impression was that yes, without a doubt, Peace Corps is difficult – but also amazing and very worthwhile. This happened sometime in January or early February of my third year at UVA, because the earliest reference I could find in my Gmail was a conversation with my friend dated February 13.

And, then… just weeks after I started reading the blog, in March, I came across a terrible update: the death of a volunteer. I couldn’t really make sense of such a terrible and random, isolated event. She had graduated from William and Mary, the school that’s just two hours away from UVA, and also the school that I would’ve gone to, with many of my high school classmates, had I not gotten accepted to UVA. I remember spending hours and hours on several other Benin blogs, trying to learn more about such a wonderful person. I found kind words full of love alongside pictures of her smiling with the other volunteers. Then, when I read her blog, I was just so struck by a person who was just so very much alive through her words. In her most recent entry, among all of the comments of people mourning her death, I found a comment made by a classmate and the sister of one my friends in APO. Suddenly, in learning about this senseless tragedy, Peace Corps became so real to me. I had become drawn to the daily lives of these volunteers, who were just trying to serve their communities in very tangible ways and who believed in what they were doing, trying to rise above their daily struggles. And, through reading these blogs and learning so much more about the Peace Corps, I knew that I still wanted to become a Peace Corps Volunteer.