Reflecting on my invitation
February 27th, 2005 by Jason Pearce.It was three years ago on this day that I received my invitation to serve as an Information Technology Peace Corps volunteer in Guyana, South America.
Nearly two years had passed since I began the lengthy application process. At the time I began my application, I was working in D.C. for a dot-com that just ran out of money.
I figured if I was going to do IT work for free, I should at least do it for the needy. So after work that day, I caught the metro to 20th and M and asked for an application.
Three years later, I launch Third Goal.
Blogging and the Peace Corps have always gone hand-in-hand for me. For years, I had maintained a personal website. But it wasn’t until February 27, 2002 — the day I accepted my Peace Corps invitation — that I added a blog to my site to document and share my Peace Corps experience with family, friends, and anyone else who was interested.
The whole idea of sharing my personal thoughts and experiences for the entire world took some getting used to. Never before had I kept a journal. Never before had I had much to share. Suddenly, I had something exciting to write about. Suddenly, I had a reason to share.
I was well aware of the Peace Corps’ mission when I began my first blog. I carefully crawled its website for months as I prepared my application and contemplated life’s direction.
The Peace Corps’ mission consisted of only three simple goals:
- Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their needs for trained men and women.
- Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
- Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of all Americans.
It was the third goal that interest me the most.
I’m good at telling stories. I had two communications degrees, served as editor of a magazine, and had developed a few dozen websites. Good or not; I at least enjoyed telling stories.
When I first read these goals, I figured the first two goals would be accomplished during service while the third goal would be accomplished after service when I returned to the states.
Then I learned about blogging and how easy Blogger.com was making the job of publishing content on the web. The idea of making content changes to my site via just a browser excited me. No more FTPing. No more code. Just content.
So I began blogging and haven’t stopped since.
I’m thrilled to have created Third Goal for Peace Corps volunteers serving after me.
As a volunteer, not a day goes by that isn’t worthy of a story; the world needs to hear them. By living vicariously through your small snippets of text, I hope Third Goal will help others reach a better understanding of cultures and people very different than their own.