Why Not?
By Dorothy Sales (Ukraine, 1995-1997)
"Why in the world would you do that?" I let the question hang in the air for a moment, and waited for the one that always followed.
"Won't that set back your career?"
They were questions I'd been asked several times since I'd decided to leave the business world for the real world and join the Peace Corps.
And they were questions that, perhaps naively, I thought had obvious answers. I had never considered that I was giving up anything by joining the Peace Corps. I had always thought of it in terms of what I was gaining. In addition to being a chance to make a difference in someone's life, I saw the Peace Corps as an opportunity to expand my skills, to gain experience, to challenge myself.
Joining the Peace Corps was something I'd always wanted to do. I can still remember seeing Peace Corps commercials as a child. As a teenager, I talked with some people who had served as Volunteers and it made a lasting impression on me. In college, my roommate served in Honduras for two years.
I had considered it many times, but as is often the case, life got in the way. After graduating from college with an economics degree, I stepped right onto the corporate ladder. First as a marketing representative in Boston, then as a fund-raiser for a small college and prep school.
Finally, after eight years in the business world, I sent in my Peace Corps application. I never had a second thought. Especially after I found out that I would be serving as a business Volunteer in Ukraine. It was an opportunity to be a part of a historic transition.
Before I knew it, I was living in a Soviet-era apartment building with no water or electricity at times, no air-conditioning in the hot and humid summers, and occasionally no heat in the sub-zero winters.
