I'm done. Oh my....

I've just finished Peace Corps! Officially, date-wise, no...but here in the San José office, yes.

I finished all the paperwork and signing up for insurance and writing documents about my service and saying my goodbyes to the wonderful Peace Corps staff that have supported me for two plus years, etc. etc. etc.

And wouldn't you know that I've just received the best line/piece of advice I've yet to receive in two years that perfectly summed up my Peace Corps experience and brought a mixture of tears and hysterical laughing to my already elated emotions? :

"You should have been a CYF volunteer" yelled to me from Dan Baker, the program manager for our CYF (Children, Youth and Families) program who's work (by nature, and not by bending the rules as I have done in my CED - Community Economic Development - program) with children.

I knew it the very first day of Peace Corps, when Delia (the wonderful, eccentric, red-haired cultural director of PC who I fell in love with at first sight) took one look at me (with red hair and nose ring and eccentric outgoing bubbly personality) and said:

"You are a CYF volunteer, not a CED volunteer...you should change programs right now so you can work with kids."

Obviously I could not change programs and have therefore I always took that statement as a kind of joke until today.

However, after finishing my service and removing myself a bit, I now realize that yes, of course working with children is much more up my alley than working with local businesses and accounting. That yes, maybe I was in the "wrong" program, but I also realize that I have done the best with what I was given. Luckily, Peace Corps was flexible and wonderful enough to let me work with kids and do what I thought best for my community. And luckily I was also mature enough to figure out what works best for me. Life comes full circle.

Now that is making the best out of what you've got.