Commitment

Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality.

It is the words that speak boldly of your intentions and the actions that speak louder than words.

It is making the time when there is none.

Coming through time after time after time, year after year after year.

Commitment is the stuff character is made of; the power to change the face of things.

It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism.

I’m not going to lie, most days I want to quit, pack my bags, and go home.  When my poop is anything but solid, when my language skills are nonexistent, when my headmaster and I butt heads…a plane ride to America seems irresistible.

But I do not quit. I push aside my pride and I persevere.

I call Bonnie, my dear friend just 5 km away in Farafenni, and talk it out with her and Jesus. I go outside and sit with my family under the mango tree while I make more flashcards and let Samba’s sweet smile melt my heart. I look up from my pit latrine and take in all those glorious stars.  I remember my students’ joyful faces as they checked out books from the school library for the first time.  I replay lunchtime conversations filled with laughter between my teachers. 

Most of all, I remember the inquisitive eight year old who dreamed of Africa and the starry-eyed idealistic eighteen year old who after hearing about the Peace Corps decided then and there she would pursue it one day.  I am now the twenty-eight year old Peace Corps Volunteer serving in The Gambia, West Africa. 

This dream is a reality, a reality that is dreadful.  Sometimes.  Yet still totally worth it.