5am

According to my Peace Corps service as a day its 5am. the sun is rising. ive heard that the first three months are the hardest, well im now through the first five and working on 6. my how time really does fly. while i was in january the time was going super slow but now i wonder where all that time went between training and february. and now its definately february. theres a few things planned and march is going to go by fast. like i said time flies. two years doesnt seem so long knowing that ive been here already for 5 months. knowing that peace corps is planning already for the next group of volunteers is strange. there will be a PSL 22, strange. i remember coming into benin and arriving and thinking to myself wow all the other volunteers look at me funny i cant really place what theyre thinking. well now i know. they were looking at the new group and perhaps thinking 'wow they dont know what expirence they are in for.' and really i didnt know what it was to be a peace corps voluteer. the new volunteers have such an amazing journey awaiting them. training was the toughest part of peace corps benin for me. i figure if i can go through training i can do anything and ive rarely encountered a situation that rivals most given regular days of training. i remember a volunteer saying to our group just as we landed in benin, 'if i can do it you can do it too' and i feel that way towards the incoming volunteers. reasons why im writing about the incoming volunteers now are because i found out that i was coming to benin around now. and it got me thinking about what i would say to someone who stumbled upon my blog as a potential volunteer, my advice, do it. i really enjoy my time here and if you get here and realize its not for you go home, my advice would be to at least try it rather than not. but if you decide that you dont want to be here for whatever reason than i honestly wont look down on anyone who makes the decision not to join peace corps or even leaves before the 2 year stint is up. when i was applying to peace corps i only heard about the people who left, or in peace corps terms ET'd, all the hype was about those who decided to go back, that peace corps was this thing that was super tough and that you needed a soul of steel to be part of the lucky few to make it to the end. what i didnt hear enough of was those who made it through the two years, this is sad because most people do actually make it through the two years just fine. two years really isnt that long. undergrad was four years, ive been in school for 16 years, there are people who have held the same jobs for 30 to 40 years, in relation 2 years isnt that much of my life. and its flying by. overall, just do it. after college (or dare i say life) isnt for hesitating and now i wouldnt do it any differently.