Sometimes I feel like I won the lottery. I go to work every morning and I still feel thrilled when I surface from the subway and see Macy’s in front of me, then I look to the left and see the lights of Times Square and walk down 34th to my midtown Manhattan office. We go to a Broadway show every other month. We live on an incredible street, in an amazing apartment. I run in Central Park. I’m married to the greatest man on earth. He never stops making me laugh, helps me get through each day, is always up for an adventure, and is very handsome. He also makes a perfect pot of coffee every morning and brings me flowers all the time. I think his job is the most interesting work in the world and he makes a huge difference every day. I think my job’s pretty interesting too – in fact, I’m challenged, inspired, and am continually learning new things every day. When will our luck run out? Knock on wood…
I had a pretty fantastic life before meeting Nate but things have only gotten better since then. For the both of us. We’re a good team. And I don’t know if we could do the things we’re doing now if we hadn’t already been through what we’ve been through in the past 8 years. Fortunately those challenges were things that we chose, rather than happened to us – we’ve been lucky enough to not have had to deal with illness and financial instability, and we’re both grateful for that, for sure.
I get thoughtful when I’m travelling for work, going weeks on end with few people to talk to besides coworkers. My coworkers are pretty awesome, but I do miss our friends too. But it’s worth it because my company does great work. I really do believe that. For example, I’m in Kenya for two weeks and not only are we delivering an integrated package of health services to one of the poorest provinces with the highest HIV rate in the country, but we’re also circumcising a large number of men and reducing the spread of HIV, and providing livelihood skills and education to kids in this region. What I do is more office-y, putting agreements in place, managing communications from NY to our country offices, working on new bids and closing projects out – but I get to see my colleagues who are doing the especially difficult yet important work on the ground. I work with people that really do care and are approaching this in the right way.
Anyway, back to winning the lottery. It’s hard to be away from Nate, but the tradeoff has been that I have visited Africa 9 times in the past 20 months!! And I’m able to make the decision to come (and to bring Nate with me on two of the trips) at the drop of a hat because we're so supportive of one another but also are completely honest. I won’t always be able to do this; when we have kids, or if circumstances change, I am happy to know that I’ll have no regrets. Moving to NY was a huge transition but it has been the best decision we’ve ever made. Doing Peace Corps was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I am so grateful we did it – no regrets. All the other decisions along the way were also risks, but have turned out to be good choices: the decision to work for Planned Parenthood, to go to Willamette and UW, to study abroad in Chile, Ecuador, Spain, to not take the job in Honduras and stick with Nate instead, to eat delicious food even when it’s bad for me, to spend ridiculous amounts of money on things like travel and concerts, to run two marathons, to marry Nate. I’m a lucky gal.
Sometimes it’s harder to be this positive. For example, living on the other side of the country from our families can be hard, but just the other night I was reminded of how far technology has progressed when I could call my parents and shed a few tears about being a bit lonely and not being able to fall asleep, and they were there to comfort me. I called them from Tanzania!! For free!! Not to mention flying to visit has never been cheaper. Even though I’m living in a constant state of jet-lag, I guess there’s a positive outcome from even my more negative moments.
Life’s good. I am grateful for all my blessings and realize how lucky I am. I am so happy. And counting down the hours until Nate arrives in Nairobi (and to Africa for the first time!).
So, as I sit here on a Friday night in the Nairobi Holiday Inn, sipping some South African Pinotage and watching Al Jazeera with baboons on the roof above me, and getting ready to call Nate… I’m content. Tomorrow I’ll get to explore a bit of Nairobi and learn a bit more about this country and continent that I’m falling in love with and that I think Nate will love too.
