In 5 Months
At our last catch my team leader asked our regional cohort to write vision statements for our next five months here. What we hope to accomplish, what we’ve learned, who we’ll be.
I wanted to share mine:
In 5 Months
* In Five months I will have grown in ways I can’t imagine now.
* I will have found a new normal and cold showers, stale bread, rooftop sunsets, rice and fish every lunch, and consistency rather than frantically changing all the time.
* In five months I will have an understanding of a country that some people don’t even know exists.
* In five months I expect to be more in touch with myself than I’ve ever been before, for sake of solitude.
* In five months I will have five brothers and five sisters to call family, forever.
* I will have faith and trust in two parents who did not produce me, but treated me as their daughter since the day I stepped through their gate.
* In five months I will hopefully add at least one new language to my small collection.
* In five months I hope to have become a staple face in my community, making me less of an outsider and more of an outside face on the inside.
* I will have impacted the lives of my students, peers, and coworkers.
* In five months I will have a new appreciation for my home — understanding that I am fortunate, but that those who don’t have what I have doesn’t make them “unfortunate“.
* In five months I will have 32 fellows I know I can count on.
* I will add a handful of adults to those I look up to.
* In five months I will know Fatou as well as I know Jacqueline.
* In five months, Senegal will be a place I chose to call home, making it the first time I chose that for myself.
Jacqueline Oeschger
