TAP TAP TAP... Is this thing on?

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Peace reader! Thanks for joining me.

My name is Rose.* I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.  I wouldn’t say Brooklyn is all I know, seeing as though I attended boarding schools for both high school and undergrad, and my passport has seen its share of ink stamps. But I will say Brooklyn is the only home I know.

I am 27 years old and engaged to the love of my life—let’s call him: The Mister. (His choice, not mine! I actually hate it.) For the past 5 years, I’ve been not so happily working a dead end position at a top NYC law firm. The Mister and I have been throwing around the idea of leaving NYC for quite some time, however the timing never really seemed right. And truth be told, my love for all things Brooklyn probably kept us grounded here far longer than necessary.

One night not too long ago, The Mister and I were talking about future plans and the prospect of teaching English abroad arose. It’s something we’ve both wanted to do and had talked about before, but that night we discovered the fire of desire was well alive. So we researched opportunities and avenues and decided to take an Oxford Seminars certification course. We had looked into Oxford Seminars when we considered teaching abroad in the past—we even attended the information session. But something was different this time. We had committed ourselves to going to abroad.  I’m a firm believer in the adage, “everything happens for a reason.”  In order to take advantage of discounts offered, The Mister and I attended an info session (even though we attended an info session in the past). At the end of the session, as we were filling out our registration forms, a batty old woman who had been interrupting the presenter’s spiel with nonsensical questions comes over to us. She was extremely chatty and invasive of personal space. So we’re both kinda mmhmm-ing her while concentrating on our applications, willing her to go away. Are you annoyed yet? We were. So I’ll save you the details, long story short: she dropped the name of a website that posts paid and volunteer opportunities available overseas. We jotted down the website, wished her luck and went on about our business.

The next evening, I came home from work to The Mister raving about an awesome opportunity he came across on the website the old batty woman had suggested to us. To make what could turn into a really long story short: we both applied, and here two weeks later, we’ve been accepted and offered positions.

Now, in the next 3 months, I’ll be leaving my job, giving up my apartment, getting married, saying goodbye to my friends, family and the only home I know, and boarding a plane headed to Ghana, Africa starting life anew as a wife, teacher, student of life and returned daughter of Africa. 

*Well sorta. Rose is actually my middle name. In the interest of anonymity, I’ll be using it as a nom de plume for this blog. The internet is a very dangerous place for a paranoid like me.