Infected.

You mean you want to live in extreme poverty...for two years....for fun?

This question never gets old.

I guess before I adventure off to an adventure sure to be filled with bugs larger then small children, a lack of indoor plumbing, and unstable electricity I should explain why it is that I have chosen this path or rather this path choose me.

I guess it all really starts with my first solo adventure out of the country. At the ripe old age of 12 I was off for a two week exploration of the South Pacific. You see I was one of "those kids" in elementary school. I was the girl who was a member of safety patrol, involved in sports and just about every after school activity I could be, I tutored kinder-gardeners, spent my lunches between the library helping to put books away and being a peer mediator on the play ground. At the end of my 5th grade year I was the girl who one the Kiwanis award that one girl from the entire 5th grade class wins. My name is still on a plaque at that school for heavens sake. I don't share this to brag but rather to paint a picture. I was by no means a cool kid. I was nerdy. I got teased and what would now be referred to as bullied. But I did not let that change me. I had dreams in life, real dreams. In 3rd grade when they asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up I stood up and proudly said " I want to be a hippy". By 5th grade I changed my mind just the slightest and was set on becoming a Supreme Court Justice.  So when that letter came the summer after 5th grade inviting me to Australia and New Zealand as a student ambassador I was in. I spent two weeks the summer after 6th grade exploring with a group of students my age. It was the first time I had really been away from home. While most kids in the group called home multiple times a day to check in, my parents were lucky to hear from me 3 times the whole trip.

It had opened my eyes to something new. It was on the trip that I was bitten. Damn travel bug.

It would be 7 years before I had the chance to leave the country again. This time it was with my University on an alternative break trip. I attended at Catholic university and while I do not claim any religion I do believe in the importance of service work and have a love for travel. Over Christmas break I was one of 10 students who ventured to El Salvador to help build a house. This trip was the game changer in my life. Not only did I become close with some of the most important people in my life but this was the first time that I can remember feeling what true happiness is. I remember a good friend of mine looking at me about three days into the trip and stating " Andrea I don't think I have seen the most sincere smile leave your face since we arrived".  There is a specific moment of this trip that I will never forget. Every time I tell this story I get goosebumps. Hell I have goosebumps from typing it right now. There we were sitting with a woman who was a survivor of the civil war that massacred the people of the country side. A war that was funded by our government as a means to fight "communism".  The week before we arrived they had just found the remains of her family that had been slaughtered by the El Salvadorian army. We sat and listened to her describe the war and how it was to lose her family. One of the girls in our group raised her hand and asked " After all you have been through how are you okay sitting here talking to us? After all our government did to you?". The woman looked up and explained to us that the fact that we were there proved that we were different. The fact that we were coming to spend time away from our families and lives to help out their community proved we were different. This is something that will never leave me. 

Since this trip I have been lucky enough to travel to Costa Rica and Guatemala. These two trips reassured me of what I felt in El Salvador; a need to learn and to help. After starting and stopping the application three separate times after returning from Guatemala I pushed submit. I guess you could say the travel bug bit me and infected me with a yearning to experience more.