YES " BECAUSE I SAID SO"

The parents have officially signed on. The biggest component in me making it, is to have full on support from my parents. When parents bring you into this world they are the ones that stamp that eternal YES into your mind. You are invincible and can fly. Can I be a princess? YES-says mom. Can I be a firefighter-YES-says dad. Can I leave my house, my debt, my favorite lotion, my boyfriend, my farmers market, M.A.C. lipstick, my friends, my freedom, my culture, my cat, my sisters, my Starbucks, my old traditions, my Barnes & Nobles, my generalizations, my ignorance, my stubbornness, my shyness, my overly social but innately singular personality and go to Azerbaijan under the warm wings of Peace Corps? yes-says mom & dad.

So after 2 or maybe 3 hours of skyping with 2 current peace corps members [Emily and Carrie] who are settled 6 months into Azerbaijan-I got the green light to pass. I could see the sigh of relief lift from my dads head when he asked them directed questions about safety only to learn that Peace Corps will probably treat me like a 15year old whose birthday is on leap year.

My mom jumped in too. She wanted to know how many black people these two young ladies saw, who they were in their former lives (1 was a an indepedent N. Dakotian supervisor and the other An Arkansan musicologist), and when do parents get to come and crash the party.

I asked questions too: A. what's the hardest thing? B. Do I really get an apartment? 3. Is nigger really being used liked that?? X. Am I crazy for keeping my boyfriend? The answers: The hardest thing would be  the bedazzling bejeweled clothes, yes of course you get an apartment (maybe not electricity all the time),  yes the Azeri's say it but it's because of miseducation of the Negro and no you're not crazy in the slightest bit. There exists a Peace Corps volunteer who is engaged and she campaigned for DSL over a washer/dryer. I DIG IT! I too will campaign for DSL and hand wash my clothes.

And in that moment, I instantly knew that slow crawling ball collecting the moss of life had turned slick and picked up speed.

So things are finally working out and I guess 10 years of shucking and jiving my decades on earth away have me exactly positioned comfortably on the straight and narrow. Of course I would have never gotten to this place without my parents but it's also important to say and remind you..that you'll never get anywhere if you don't give yourself permission to do so.

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