Should You Join the Peace Corps?

“Should I join the Peace Corps?” is a common question I receive since I’ve arrived back to the U.S. after my stint in Paraguay. The particular email I received a few days ago was from a student who was in the AP Spanish class I taught several years ago at Riverside Brookfield HS:

I served as Peace Corps Volunteer in the Education Sector for 2 years in a super rural part of Paraguay 10 miles outside of San Juan Nepomuceno and I definitely have an opinion on whether or not you should join the Peace Corps.  To be frank, I enjoyed the Peace Corps myself but I do not believe it is for everyone. I will try to be as real as I can here and not just give you the simplistic, gold plated version of the Peace Corps, in which the volunteer arrives to a paradise-ish tropical place and somehow saves the day. Let’s consider the pros and cons to devoting two of the prime years in your life to an abroad organization such as the Peace Corps.

 

 

Pro: You will be able to make a difference and be notable in people’s lives in a way you cannot in the U.S. without a lot more work/education.  For example, I was able to help set the wheels in motion to build a health post for an underserved community. I trained teachers (who honestly had much more classroom experience than I did) on primary school methodology and doing a ton of work in the schools.  I started a library.  Taught a sex ed class.  I built a great network of friends in my site. I was only 23 when I got there.

 

Con: Your ability to succeed is very dependent on the cooperativeness of your site partner, and this may prove to be more difficult than you think.  You will also go through periods of extreme frustration where you wish you were back in the United States with all your old friends and a “real” job.

 

 

Pro: You will expand exponentially intellectually.  You’ll get to read a ton of books from college/high school/life that you never had time to read and you’ll realize that, hey, these are actually kind of awesome books.  You can listen to podcasts and even download Ivy League courses.  I probably learned more from self education without distraction in those 2 years than I did in 4 years of high school and 4 years of college combined.  Not to mention the linguist benefits and the increased cultural IQ you will have simply from osmosis.

 

Con: You’ll be envious of your friends in their early 20s who are making $$ and living it up in the big city.  Especially if you spend too much time on facebook looking at their pictures and comparing your lives.  I don’t recommend this approach btw.

 

Pro: Your worldview, and your network, will grow greatly.  You will meet many like minded Peace Corps Volunteers with the same hungry curiosity for travel and culture.  Additionally, you will meet many amazing people from the country where you are stationed.

 

Con: Once your worldview has expanded like this, it will likely be hard to go back and feel 110% satisfied with your suburban culture.  You will constantly need to be looking for new outlets. This is a condition sometimes referred to as wanderlust.

 

 

Pro: You’ll be a incredible at whatever language you learn if you put forth daily effort. In two years, it’s impossible not to.

 

Con: Your English gets worse. Seriously. I had trouble spelling some basic words for a while when I got back.

 

 

Pro: With the new application system, you can very easily apply to a specific program or country.  When I was applying to the Peace Corps, I had no such choice.

 

Con: Once you get in country, your site for two years is determined by your sector director.  Yes, you get some say in the type of living situation you would like (e.g. rural, big city, etc.) but the director has the ultimate say.

 

 

Pro: You get to experience a novel culture on a very deep level.  You’re not just learning about a culture, you’re living it every day.  You’re laughing, loving, becoming frustrated, etc.   Even just one or two weeks abroad is 10x better than one year of say, Spanish I classes.

 

Con: Reverse culture shock is a horrible thing, and you won’t have a nice big support system like you did when you arrived to the Peace Corps.  You’re on your own, and your hilarious story about how ‘One day you chewed Tobacco with a 71 year old guy and forgot to spit‘ might end up being one of those ‘had to be there’ moments.  It sucks when you can’t relate.  (ed: I highly recommend joining grad school right out of the Peace Corps…if that’s something you’re into)

 

Pro: You’ll have a lot of time on your hands. You have time for gardening, working out, cooking, writing etc.

 

Con: Unless your name is Driven McMotivation, You WILL get bored as hell at some (or many a) point.

 

Pro: You will have 2 years of rich life experience. Your salary will be enough that you can get by. My Peace Corps salary was about $300 per month, or 1.3 million Guaraníes. Your health care is high quality and completely free

 

Con: You will finish the 2 years with essentially no money.  That $7,000 stipend goes damn fast, let me tell you.  Also, your student loans compound.

 

 

To sum up, the Peace Corps is a fantastic learning experience. But on the whole, I would only do if you see it lining up with your long term career interests.  Two years is a long time in the prime of your life and while everyone wants to help people, it is important to look at these two years as an investment in yourself.

 

If you still aren’t quite sure, or if you are high school or college age and you haven’t been abroad yet, check out a program like Maximo Nivel where you can go abroad for an shorter period of time and see if it’s something that interests you.