I expect my time in Peace Corps service to be exciting, life changing, and challenging. Living in a democracy where our people have been free for over two hundred years, it is difficult to imagine what it would be like to live under a socialist or communist regime. The United States thrives and grows because
the freedom to choose why, where, and how business will be conducted lies inherently within its citizens. The principles of supply and demand, with laws encouraging and protecting these, fuels and ensures the success of our nation. Heading to another land where the transition is just now being made to this system, I am excited and willing to offer all I can in terms of business education and insight into how businesses run and operate in a free market economy.
I see myself as a business educator. Using the business theory and practice gained in college, I will be bringing an arsenal of valuable knowledge ranging from basic macro/micro economic principles to international price and marketing theory, management at the operational and strategic levels of business, and consumer pricing theory. I expect to feel disappointed, worn-out, and lonely. I believe I will make great friends, exchange important ideas and life theories with the people of Romania, and suspect I will leave Romania thinking that these people did so much more for me than I for them. Wherever I teach, whomever I work with to develop educational curriculum or solicit funding for capital ventures, I plan to do it with an open-mindedness and eagerness representative of the American culture I know.
I have already begun my cultural and language training. I feel that the next four weeks of my life will be as important as the next two years, because there is so much to prepare for. The better prepared I am now, the easier it will be for me to adapt and deal with a new culture. Currently I am learning all I can about Romanian, European and Baltic history, religion, culture, customs and political/economic frameworks and organization. Organizing all of this research, I have begun to synthesize and prepare, in written format, areas of interest in order to gain further insight, clarity, and control.
The Peace Corps Romania handbook has proven to be an invaluable resource. I've already emailed each volunteer currently in Romania (with an email address), and feedback has been astounding and outrageously helpful. The "Teach Yourself Romanian" study guide and cassette I have purchased has done a great job at teaching this language, as I am finding it amazingly similar to Spanish in many areas. Upon arriving in Romania for PST, I plan on doing all possible to interact, learn, and take part in as much of the culture as possible. I feel that living with a host family during this training will facilitate and make this experience all the more valuable and beneficial.
Personally, I believe this experience will be similar to being born again and living another life. I feel I will have to face challenges every hour of every day, and in order to deal with them, will need to be constantly evaluating my personal attitudes, beliefs, world-view, and professional function in my community of service.
I want to grow up, grow out of the limited vision and view of the world I now have. As much as I "know" how lucky we are in the United States, and as much as I "know" how the rest of the world is, I realize that one can never fully understand something different until one tries it out, and becomes a part of it. Two of Peace Corps goals are to represent America to the rest of the world, and in turn, bring back representation to America from the world. I feel we need to know this in America because in our democracy's success there has been bred a stagnating inflation of ignorance and limited view as to what the rest of the world faces.
Professionally, I plan on transferring as much business knowledge and experience as possible over the two years of service. If insight and understanding can be gained into how a free market operates by the people and organizations I work with, and if the results of these new revelations leads to developmental progress in the educational and/or private sectors, leaving a Romanian people capable of being self-sufficient in the practicing and passing on of knowledge to further generations, then I will be pleased, content, and at peace. These are my goals for now, and for all of you who read this, I am excited and eager to meet with you, and to embark on, as they say, "the toughest job you'll ever love!"