Where DID I Put My Passport?

Last night I bought a ticket to Guatemala. I will be leaving the country for the first time in over 18 months, and it is about damn time.

If you know me at all, you know I don't stay in one place for very long. Travel, especially international travel, is among my top passions in life. When I go to catch up with someone I haven't seen in awhile, almost as common as "So, what's new with you? What have you been up to?" is the question, "So, do you have any travel plans coming up?" It's the equivalent of my asking my best friend the music buff and former tour manager if she's seen any good shows lately. The answer will be yes, because just as travel is my passion, music is hers.

For a long time now, my answer was a downtrodden "No." I have had to accept my adulthood with a heavy dose of reality. There are student loans to pay, insurance, credit scores, and a budding career to think about. No more are the multiple part-time jobs through which I save just enough money to blow on an island excursion. This is growing up. This is responsibility.

But. What good is a life without passion?

Thus, in this next phase of my life I have to find a way to combine responsibility with risk, the "real world" with my dreams. I have sought out the advice of others who I believe have done so, and I have searched for opportunities that appear to put me on the right path. And I have landed here, with a ticket to Central America scheduled to depart in one month.

On January 13th, I begin a position as a Support Teams Coordinator for Safe Passage (in Spanish, Camino Seguro), a non-profit that runs an Educational Reinforcement Center, Early Education Program, and Adult Literacy Program in one of Guatemala City's most disadvantaged neighborhoods. I will coordinate volunteer groups who come to Safe Passage for a week at a time to do service projects with the students.

This job is perfect for me, in almost every way. Not only will I continue to develop professionally (read: build that resume), but I get to incorporate everything that I love: international exchange, child/youth development, Spanish, and volunteer service (while on the side, entertaining a healthy internal debate on the strategies of "voluntourism" vs local, grassroots development). I feel, in short, that this is an excellent fit. While I'm sad to leave and once again distance myself from friends and family, I am beyond excited about what's to come.

I will write here, as I did before, to keep everyone updated on my experience, and to record the memories that I will undoubtedly wish to look back on later.

I can't believe it's really happening. But here we go.