Just A Thought — Introduction

27 months, foreign country, different language, rural living. Nobody said it would be easy.

In fact, they said it would be hard.

In fact, they said it would be hard so much that you wished they would stop saying how hard it’s going to be.

But they’re right, it is hard. Peace Corps is many things; it’s joyous, exhilarating, astounding, incredible — but hard.

And what do we do with that? Well, we use each other. We talk with one another, lean on another’s shoulder. We remind each other that it’s not just us, and that helps us through the tough days.

This, I hope, can be an extension to that. My name is Briley, and this is my Daily Vivere column, Just A Thought.

So what is this? Well, it’s not an advice column. I don’t have any answers; just ideas, observations, thoughts. I’d like for this instead to be a dialogue, a conversation starter. We all have these struggles that we’re going through, and we all have our own ideas on how to best deal with them. I feel they’re best brought out into the light of day so we can look at them, think about them, and perhaps find out how to deal with them a bit better. If not for us, then those that come after us.

Each post I’ll be looking at a struggle one may (or really, will) go through during service — anxiety, integration, loneliness, etc. — and dissecting it a little bit, questioning what we could maybe do to ameliorate it un chin.

I’m no therapist. The closest I’ve ever come to pursuing psychology is binge-watching all eight seasons of Psych in two weeks. But I enjoy thinking about these things and I know others have thought about them, too. So please, make this a discussion. Comment any and every thought, opinion, agreement, disagreement you may have, and let’s think about some of the tough things.

In the Peace Corps, we’re in the human business. Quite possibly the most human business most of us will ever be in. And in the immortal words of Mr. Rogers, “Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable is manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary”.

Maybe by talking about these things a bit, we can make service a little easier on ourselves.

Just a thought.