It’s time for us to look towards our shared future as our next big adventure begins this August! Who knows where it will take us (or this blog), but we’re excited for all that the journey will bring.

It’s time for us to look towards our shared future as our next big adventure begins this August! Who knows where it will take us (or this blog), but we’re excited for all that the journey will bring.
“Have I even done anything today?”
This thought was all too common during my first few months as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Being thrust into a new community, in a new country, with the oh-so-specific guidance to “integrate” for two months, can lead to us Type-A Americans feeling a bit down about our lack of accomplishment.
But I’m not in the Peace Corps anymore. I’m back in the states, trying to get back into the swing of “American” life.
It’s funny how similar readjustment to US culture can be to the initial adjustment to a foreign culture. Thinking back to early in my Peace Corps service, I realized that journaling and blogging helped me gain perspective; it made me feel like I was taking advantage of my time. Even if I didn’t do it as much as I wanted to, it was still helpful. I had things to share, about Nicaragua, about the transition, about how life is like in another part of the world.
But I’m not in the Peace Corps anymore. What is special or interesting about my life? And what am I doing with my time?
Life. Readjusting. Moments with friends and family I dearly missed. Enjoying the summer. Reading. Yard work. Gardening. Parties. Summer camps. When I paused to reflect, I realized there were an infinite number of small things happening that I loved, that mattered, even if they didn’t necessitate a 500 word blog post. So how could I capture and share this special, yet simple, time of life?
Enter 1 Second Everyday. This awesome app has been the perfect remedy for my social media lethargy, and helps me feel like I’m documenting this unique period of readjustment while not taking time away from actually living and experiencing it. As the name implies, it’s helps you record and edit 1 second of video a day, with an end goal of having a 6ish minute long video at the end of the year to help you recap your life, to see the moments in time pass by and help us grasp the slow transitions from one year to the next. It’s simple, yet powerful. It’s easy, yet profound.
I’ve found that working on this project has made me more intentional and aware during my day. Knowing I have only 1 second to capture the essence of a day keeps me on the lookout for moments that matter. This can range from the mundane (reading a good book) to the memorable (capture a bridal party jumping photo at a wedding I officiated). I feel more grounded knowing I have a record of this time of life. Being more grounded gives me the space to reflect internally and the time to readjust before jumping back into our blog here with more formal posts and redefining what we write about. 1 Second Everyday is allowing me to lean into this time, to experience it for what it is, to live.
I would’ve loved to have taken a video of 1 second everyday during my Peace Corps service to complement my blogging and journaling, but I can’t change the past. May I suggest, however, that you start right away? Whether you’re in Peace Corps, grinding away 9 to 5, or struggling to find even one second to breathe between kid activities, I think you’ll find 1 Second Everyday to be an empowering, entertaining, and easy addition to your life.
I guarantee you’ve done something today that deserves being remembered.
It seems like ages ago that we made these goals, and indeed it was! A few have changed over time and a couple we didn’t quite finish, but it’s still fun to look back at how far we’ve come:
By the time we rang “the bell” to signal the end of our service in Peace Corps Nicaragua, we wanted to:
Good morning all! As I write this the rain has been picking up speed and we can feel a slight chill in the air. The sound and the cold make it a perfect time to share a mate with the family. And if you know mate, then you might be able to guess that I’m writing to you from Monte Caseros, Argentina.
Our post Peace Corps travels so far have been amazing! We’ve shared, eaten, explored, questioned, and lived as deep into the experience of each day as we could. And because of this (and not knowing when we would next have consistent Internet) we’ve been a bit absent on here.
This blog was such an important part of our Peace Corps experience and we want to keep it alive. But, as we rang the bell on March 1st, it cannot exist as it did and needs to change along with us as we transition out of Peace Corps and on to our next phases of life.
One change we are making is to our domain name – to the link you use to find us. We never loved the .org at the end of our url, but it was all that was available at the time. This post is to inform you of three main things:
We feel so thankful for the opportunity to connect with friends and family during our travels and this transition. Adventure is out there. And we’re finding it.
We had the most beautiful Valentine’s Day yesterday. We curled up last night with some apples and cheese, some dark chocolate sea-salt caramels (that Andrew brought us back from the states just over a week ago), and a wonderful movie. I’ve always loved UP, but last night took it to a whole new level:
We spent Valentine’s Day planning parts of our 3 month after PC travel – half of which we’ll be backpacking through South America. The only “for sure” we have in our trip thus far is a flight from Buenos Aries to Portland, ME on April 13-15th. Our current itinerary (which could still change as we travel) may include Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and finally Argentina. From hiking in the Andes to boating in the Amazon, we’ve got plenty to explore. And while we won’t be making it to Angel Falls like Carl and Russell (things are a little tricky in Venezuela right now), I couldn’t help but feel like a giddy little kid thinking about all of the adventures we’re about to have in South America, “a land lost in time”….
I’d never watched Up before in Spanish, but we did last night. Doing so with such ease reminded me that while I may have had some ups and downs with my Spanish over the course of our service, I’m extremely proud of the progress I’ve made. We’re even looking at potential bilingual jobs for this fall. (Example: I found a 7/8th Science teacher position that would be taught completely in Spanish immersion.) Depending on our final language interviews next week, we could be pretty competitive for those positions and have the internationally accredited certificate to prove it.
I usually cry during Up, but last night I sobbed. Ellie’s funeral scene just cut me to the core. Not only has Peace Corps brought Andrew and I closer than ever and strengthened our relationship, we have so many family extensions down here now, some of whom are older and might not be here when we return. We have 13 days left as Peace Corps Volunteers. I’m not ready to say goodbye, but the time has come. I’m going to cry so much.
We’ll be arriving at the Portland, ME airport around midnight Fri. evening/Sat. morning of the 14/15th of April. We’ll start our re-adjustment and re-entry to the United States with my sister and a good college friend up north before starting our trek across the states. We’re planning to attend two of our brothers’ graduations, visit Midwest family and friends before heading out to the PNW. We’ve got a couple weddings and summer camps to attend as well. We may be adventuring for a bit in South America, but afterwards we’re coming back home, and spending time with the loved ones we’ve so dearly missed. It’s family and friends, after all, that fill our adventure book with the most important moments, memories, and love.
¡La aventura nos aguarda! / Adventure is out there!
For our last holiday season in Nicaragua, we wanted to be at home in Esteli and spend Christmas and New Years Eve like most Nicaraguans do: in family. We had two main goals, one of for each holiday. For Christmas I wanted to try the seasonal dish lomo relleno, and for New Years Eve Emily wanted to make our own viejo. Continue reading Home is Where the Holiday Is
Thanks to the Multnomah County Library (and our impending end of service language evaluation), we’ve started a new tradition: reading aloud in Spanish. It’s the perfect thing to pass the time while one of us (Andrew) is cooking, and or the other (Emily) is doing dishes. We can already tell our pronunciation is improving!