The Next Big Thing

It isn't a secret that I have a type-A personality when it comes to work. I've had to curb that itch (as much as humanly possible) while on this journey we call Peace Corps Burkina Faso. But, if I am completely honest I must admit that I can never and will never shake it. I am not sure that I have ever wanted to change my work ethic except in Burkina as a method of preserving my mental health (it is a necessary tactic when the pace of life is close to molasses).

As responses from graduate school applications begin to roll in I can feel the familiar push. My Close of Service Conference is nearing, which means the inevitable plane ride to an as-of-yet unknown destination. What will be my next big thing?

I can't help running the scenarios through my head. What if I attend this program or that one? What if I apply to this summer Arabic program or that one? (We're talking Summer 2013.) I know... I have a problem. My name is Casey D. Hall and I am a relapsing workaholic.

I can keep an endless series of simultaneous task lists set for different time frames ranging from the next three hours to the next 20 years. Maybe I took all the talk about time management too close to heart when I was working for my university. Does obsession with tasks and planning qualify as a desirable trait for employment?

The renewed fixation has translated into immediate disappointment. I made a list yesterday of the tasks I wanted to get done: talk to the primary school director about the AIDS mural, talk to the head nurse about a variety of projects that are on the table and talk to the acting president of the theater troupe. I jumped on my bike and headed to the school. The director wasn't there and was in fact out of town. I brushed it off and biked to the clinic. The head nurse also had left. Lastly, I biked to the theater president's favorite spots. He apparently went away as well.

I can't remember a single day in the U.S. when I failed to complete the vast majority of tasks on my list (unless it was one of those rare snow days in Washington State when everyone doesn't have any clue how to drive in the snow).

Burkina has a life pace and subsequently a work pace that is closer akin to the saunter of a camel than the trot of a horse. It makes total sense considering the climate and resources available. Camels don't book it across the Sahara for a reason.

So, the Faso puts my personality to the test especially considering the coming transition. My mind is racing, the calendar is steadily marching and Burkina is sauntering. How do I integrate the layers of my personal space-time continuum without rupturing it?

Obviously I am joking, but I am definitely feeling a collision of worlds approaching. Somehow I will be coming out the other end as a repatriated RPCV graduate student. New labels for a new life, right?

So Mr. Hall, what is your next big thing? Well, grad school of course. I don't have the details, but I can tell you I will have them soon. I'll send you a memo of my transitional to-do list as soon as the news breaks.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Airtel Burkina Faso.