Why am I joining the Peace Corps?

I think that on this, the night before our Peace Corps adventure begins, it is important I write down and share the reasons I am doing this. I hope this answers some of your questions; also, I might soon forget, and this way, I can be reminded of why we are doing this, too! So as I search my heart for answers to why we decided to join the Peace Corps, here is the list:

"Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did." 1John2:6

*I want to step out of Western, comfortable, American Christianity for a while and just try (try being the key word!) to live a little closer to the way Jesus did
*Deep in my heart I still hold onto a naive, but incredibly sincere, passion to contribute to humanity--to make the world a better place
*I have been given so much and lived such a wonderful, comfortable life - I want to give some of that away to someone else; someone a world away from that life
*I want to learn about the world, to open my eyes and my heart to another culture
*I don't want to just talk about helping people, or about what I think we could or should do. I want to stop for a moment and really try and live it
*There is a part of me that longs for adventure
*I simply love to travel, I love languages, other cultures, the sights, sounds, everything!
* This is the perfect time in my life to pick up and go, there is nothing holding me back and I am able to share this experience with my best friend
*I don't want to look back on my life with regrets and "I wish I would haves." I want to take advantage of the opportunities before me
*I want to make friends that are different from me, to really enter into the lives of people a world away from what I know
*I want a challenge, to step outside my comfort zone and hopefully expand it
*Most of all I want to learn about love, about faith, and about humanity
Thank you for supporting me in living out this dream!
Erin