One Month To Go – Time well spent (Part I)

In one month, I will be officially in Benin participating in PST (Pre-Service Training – the Peace Corps apparently loves acronyms). Emails have started flooding in from different PC offices with information about the staging and training processes and the realness of my situation is starting to finally hit me. Here are some of the things going through my head at the moment.

Summer Expectations vs. Reality

I thought that I was going to spend the summer traveling to visit friends, maybe try and learn to sail or scuba dive or something crazy. Basically, I wanted to enjoy what would probably be my last relaxing summer until retirement.

Although I visited some friends and will visit some more, I didn’t do anything as wild as I’d wanted. I spent the bulk of the summer with the three youngest of my siblings. They are all in high school now and this has been the first opportunity for me to spend quality time with them since I, myself was in high school and they were noogie-height.

Frisbee,

barbeques,

swimming,

hiking,

board games,

card games,

made-up games,

softball,

weird insightful conversations, the list goes on. Basically, we played all summer long.

I was also able to spend a couple days on the Appalachian Trail, go fishing with my Uncle up in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont (right around the corner from Bubble F*ck Nowhere, USA. Honestly, it might be in Canada, who knows . . . ).

 

Fresh Brook Trout

 

All in all, I did not get as much alone time as I had anticipated, nor did I learn any new skills as I had hoped. However, I don’t think I could have dreamed of a better way to spend my summer than with my family. Distance can make you forget how wonderful having a close family is. This time with them was more important than any of the things that I thought I wanted or needed to do this summer.

My uncle and I at camp in the Northeast Kingdom

 

Goals for my 30th birthday . . .

I have decided to formalize a list of dreams that I have had bouncing around my brain for some time now. I’m using this post to challenge myself to meet these goals before I turn 30 years old. Some of them are a real stretches in terms of feasibility but you can’t do anything if you don’t try. The lists below are in no way inclusive of all of my dreams and are not in any sort of rank order.

Before I turn 30, I would like to learn to (through experience) . . .

• sail and maintain a sailboat (because it seems like the only way to be free and travel the world),
• scuba dive and free dive (there is just way to much that most people never get to see down there),
• fish including spearfish, deep-sea, etc. (mostly because I love fish, like the taste I mean),
• hunt in general (c’mon it’s practical),
• clean and cook what I catch (otherwise it’s just a waste),
• garden and cook what I grow (plants are pretty darn cool),
• speak Spanish on a informal, conversational basis,
• as much about micro-finance and micro-business as possible (obviously),
• trade weather derivatives effectively,
• trade synthesized stock and bonds (risk profiles and creating your own investments are just awesome and useful skills to have),
• about weather patterns and global climate change (everyone probably should),
• how nonprofits function effectively,
• I am definitely forgetting some things here . . .

I would also want to learn any other languages possible, which is a real stretch. I just think Spanish would be a good place to start after French. I will most likely be learning Fon in the PC, that is if I am posted in or around where I think I might be in Benin. I am really open to anything though.

Before I turn 30, I would like to go to / see . . .

• Benin (Obviously),
• Morocco (did a project on Morocco once, fell in love with the idea. Check out Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations episode on Netflix and you will too.),
• Algeria,
• Senegal,
• Mali,
• Egypt (pretty sure it’s a must see if you are in Africa),
• The Canary Islands (I’ve heard they’re just incredible),
• Kenya,
• Ethiopia (I love everything to do with coffee and I would love to see plantations here),
• South Africa,
• The Antilles,
• Somewhere in the South Pacific / East Asia (really anywhere will do, I’d like to spend some serious time in this world region at some point though),
• Anywhere else I can get to (I’m really not picky, North Pole, Sahara Desert, Middle East, whatever, I’m down) . . .

I would really like to go everywhere on earth, this is just what might be feasible before I turn 30. Also I am going to try to get all over Africa when I have time in the PC, the above African countries are simply my priorities.

Other things I would like to do include:

• obtain my MBA in Finance from a top-tier school,
• obtain my CPA license in the process,
• launch my Hedge Fund (I have an idea for this),
• Be completely self-sustainable,
• Feel like I have done my best to help the world,
• Be in good shape and eating healthy,
• Own a sailboat,
• Again, there are things that I am not thinking of right now . . .

Yeah, this is less feasible section of my dream list, but let a fella dream right?