no longer tentative

When I got back from orientation today around 5:00pm, I was disappointed because I hadn't gotten a response from my recruiter about my nomination. I emailed him Friday around 5:00pm and got a vacation reply because of the holiday weekend. I assumed he wasn't going to get back to me and I'd have to spend tomorrow anxiously awaiting his email.

Well much to my surprise, it seems my fabulous recruiter doesn't have the typical 9-5 hours because at 6:13 I finally got the email! He has nominated me for an English Teaching position in Central Asia / Asia leaving in early June 2011. Which means graduating then peacing it out of the country almost immediately afterwards. Oh well, this is terribly exciting.

Now, some of you may be getting overly excited at this point and thinking "Oh em gee, Ashley's been accepted in the Peace Corps and will most definitely be leaving next June. It's official, set in stone, and she can 100% be considered part of the Peace Corps." While that would be wonderful, there's a paragraph in my nomination email which will be of interest to those who have not obsessively stalked all PC-related websites like me.

"That said, keep in mind that a nomination is not a guarantee for an invitation. Programs can fill, or change, and some people can get caught up in the medical evaluation process; it is possible that you will not be invited to your original program. If that happens, the placement office will do their best to find you a program as close as possible to the one to which I am nominating you."

This nomination is a very important step in the process, but it is by no means the final, ultimate, and deciding factor. I now have to get medical and dental forms filled out and wait for my actual placement and invitation. If you have questions, please ask or check out www.peacecorpswiki.com and www.peacecorps.gov. Both should be fabulous at answering questions about the process, probably better than me.

But enough about that, I was nominated! HOORAY