Peace Corps Motivation Statement

1 of 2 required statements for the Peace Corps application package.

Motivation Statement

I’m 57-years old and at a crossroad. I wonder is this it: to grow up, raise a family, and continue working until retirement? What is it that I want besides marking time behind a desk, nine to five? Who I am in addition to a woman, mother, worker and writer? What can I do to make a difference in one small corner of the world? These are the questions I have been considering while re-evaluating my life, dreams and goals. While researching various options, I came across an old dream, the Peace Corps. I realized now is the perfect time for me to reach for this goal.

Under my quiet exterior there is one who wants more than a mindless life of TV, shopping and security. I seek a different road. When I was thirty-four years old, I joined the National Guard. I was deployed to support Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Afterwards, I continued to serve in the National Guard for a total of thirteen years. Ten of those years were active duty with the Active Guard Reserve in Connecticut. My military time taught persistence, how to deal with shifting priorities, and to find the most effective, efficient methods to do tasks and projects. What I learned from my deployment is that I can readily adapt to unusual and harsh conditions, and that I’m more flexible than I thought possible.

Until several years ago, I also did various types of volunteer activities in addition to working full-time, raising my children as a single parent, caring for my chronically ill father and attending night school. These activities ranged from volunteer teacher assistant in my childrens' classrooms, the PTA, Civil Air Patrol and two National Guard Programs for children. When I realized I was doing too much, I stepped back from the volunteer work and became immersed in my job, school and family. I now have the time; and while I still have energy and my health, I want to something significant—something meaningful.

My expectations of the Peace Corps is that I will have an opportunity to be integrated into a different culture, to learn from the people that I’ll be living with and to share what knowledge I have with them. That during and afterwards my service with the Peace Corps, I will convey this experience “that we are all one world” to family, friends, co-workers, and others through letters, my poetry and writing. I also feel that my time with the Peace Corps will help me more clearly define my goals for the rest of my life, which includes, a career (be it paid or volunteer) and of course when I retire—my next crossroad.