Lemonade

There’s a motivational saying familiar to American culture that people often hear when they’re in need of a little encouragement: When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. 

With a lip-puckeringly sour taste that lingers on your tongue, the lemons in this expression represent hardship; they represent tough luck and unfortunate circumstances.  Maybe it’s a bad grade you got on your algebra test.  Maybe you fell off your bike, got dumped by your significant other, or got shat on by a bird while you were walking down the street. 

Sometimes it’s more significant than that.  It could be a cycle of uncertainty you can’t seem to escape, the helplessness and vulnerability you feel when something begins to spiral out of control, watching those you care about struggle and being unable to provide any help, experiencing heartache that won’t go away, or consistently failing to overcome the same challenges.

I’ve had quite a few lemons sent me way over the past couple of years.  But instead of being handed over to me, it felt like they were launched at me.  And when I got hit, it hurt pretty bad.  Some of the bruises that resulted will never go away. 

The lemonade in this expression – and the sugar that it contains – represents a positive byproduct of the symbolic adversity. For example, maybe that poor grade motivated you to study harder; maybe you improved your ability to ride a bike, ended up with a cooler person, or…well, I dunno…I’m not sure how to improve the bird shit situation.  That stuff kinda just happens.  Tough shit (pun).

Peace Corps is my lemonade.  It’s a delectable concoction of all my life experience; the good, the bad, and the ugly.  It contains my successes and failures, the lessons I’ve learned and the knowledge gained along the way.  It’s the pain that I’ve felt, the confusion and the frustration, but it’s also the joy in life that has helped me preserve.  The mixture’s been stirred by the people I’ve met and the conversations I’ve had with them.  They’ve added their support and their love, as well as their positive and negative feedback.

And just as the drink is both sour and sweet, so to will be my experience. Over the next 27 months, I’ll ride an emotional rollercoaster through the trials and tribulations of leaving behind a luxurious, first world lifestyle, and adopting one from the third world.  I'll have the opportunity to meet new people, become ingrained in a new culture, grow both personally and professional, and learn a new language...among other things (there are a lot of other things).  

The last couple years have been tough; perhaps as an adjustment to the first 24 being such a smooth ride.  But just like the aforementioned idiom suggests, when life hands (or throws…) you lemons, you’ve gotta make some lemonade.  

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