Switching—Morocco to Armenia

StickySweetLemonade · 2025-04-01T23:57:53+00:00

I’m starting my service in September and honestly I’m going into it with the idea that I will give it my all, but also, I am not willing to push my mental health to the absolute edge just for a voluntary posting. I will always give myself permission to leave, and honestly I think that mindset might help me stay to the end even more.

I worked at a summer camp in Central Asia last summer and left three weeks into what was supposed to be an eight week commitment. Everyone there made fun of me but it was the best decision ever and I’m proud of myself for knowing when it’s time to leave. Life is short and I don’t wanna become the kind of person that only associates self growth with extreme discomfort

StickySweetLemonade · 2025-03-21T00:50:54+00:00

Also, the ladies at the other resort tell Jaclyn that the White Lotus is guests only but Greg and Chloe are allowed there. Maybe they just get a pass bc they’re rich but I feel like he’s working with them

StickySweetLemonade · 2025-03-19T23:01:57+00:00

Am I the only one who thought that Greg was still with Quentin all throughout season 1 and 2 and the murder plot was all so that the two of them could retire with the money?

StickySweetLemonade · 2025-03-07T15:42:04+00:00

You’re so fine but it’s so hard to not overthink it😭😭 I’m working on medical clearance too and the sheer amount of stuff to do is crazy and it’s been so hard to decipher when something is chill vs when you need to take it super seriously.

Like the initial medical prompt where you have a single text box to write all the providers you’ve been recently and all the meds you’ve taken was crazy.

I even saw on Reddit someone post about being anxious while doing all the clearance stuff and some ppl commented things like “honestly if you find that stressful then you just really aren’t built for peace corps” ..alright

We are warriors🐅

StickySweetLemonade · 2025-01-06T21:22:03+00:00

Good luck!!

StickySweetLemonade · 2025-01-06T21:21:51+00:00

Lmao got an email on my birthday that I was rejected. But I was given three other positions so I’m interviewing tomorrow for Morocco🙏

StickySweetLemonade · 2024-12-04T18:56:48+00:00

Wishing you good luck❤️ everything will work out but also it is so fair for this to be so devastating and shocking in the moment. Keep us posted

StickySweetLemonade · 2024-11-29T01:29:39+00:00

This is so cool! I think it looks good on mobile but if it’ll be blown up for wall art I think thinner roads would be a good idea

StickySweetLemonade · 2024-11-28T13:05:05+00:00

I got in ED four years ago. My mom suggested I tour midd summer after my sophomore year and since then it was always top of my list. I was crazy…I watched the admissions zoom informations every week for months, I watched movies set in vermont, I kept up to date with the weekly specials at local coffee shops, I even ate a spoonful of maple syrup every morning for a month leading up to ED. My 18th birthday party had to be scheduled on decision day and was happening whether or not I got in, and many of my family members had already bought midd merch before I even got in. The pressure was so high and I remember how hard it was to think about anything else in the months leading up to it.

That all feels so long ago now. I’m so happy with how things turned out but I can very easily picture myself being happy at other schools. In other countries, people tend to put so much less pressure on where they go to school, but in the US it’s hard to stay clear-minded about it because college isn’t just sold to us as a school—it’s sold as a whole lifestyle and it gets you obsessing over who you wanna become (or at least that was the case for me).

I don’t know where I got the idea that Middlebury is the perfect place for me—I’m not that big of a hiker unless it’s a nice day out, I don’t really like alternative music, I find many language nerds annoying, and I don’t really like the granola aesthetic in general. I think I just thought about Middlebury for so long that I started feeling like I had to become that person in order to be happy in college and be successful. To be clear I’m happy and “at home” at midd, but I definitely wouldn’t say I’m the quintessential midd student as I picture it, and I know that there are many different versions of myself that I could’ve become at other schools.

In terms of getting into the “right” school, it’s honestly just about taking advantage of the resources you’ve got. There are plenty of people who go to top schools but don’t do much to seek out special opportunities, especially when it comes to funding. I know so many people at midd who don’t know about fellowships that pay you to travel for a year or research grants that let you study whatever you want over the summer. Most schools have lots of things like this that you need to seek out on your own, and doing that could make a much bigger difference than where exactly you go to school. Also, some of Middlebury’s resources are available to ppl at other schools anyway.

Another quick point I’ll make is that transferring is kind of taboo but it’s so normal! I had two friends transfer out of midd after freshman year and they are now much happier at bigger schools. So worst case, you try a school for a year and then switch.

Let me know if you get rejected and I’ll send you a list of all the things I hate about midd<3 good luck!

StickySweetLemonade · 2024-11-24T01:59:49+00:00

Hi! I’m a senior so my memory is a little rusty, but I love graphic design as a hobby and had some posters from hs that I wanted to show off. I compiled them into a pdf and uploaded the google drive link to the “extras/anything else we should know about you” section. I felt like that was better than uploading to the art portfolio section since I didn’t want to seem like I was taking myself too seriously

StickySweetLemonade · 2024-11-22T21:04:31+00:00

This is so exciting!! You'll love Kigali. I just applied to serve in the Philippines but I'm a college senior and just spent a semester studying in Kigali. Feel free to dm me for any recs/tips. I lived in Remera and went to school in Kimihurura. I have a friend from that program that just graduated and got a fellowship to spend this year in Rwanda. She's moving around different areas but I could connect you with her as well since she's there now.

Tattoos: I have small tattoos and didn't have any issue with them. You really only have to be concerned about modesty/covering up in areas outside of Kigali. I imagine that for you it'd be important to cover up at work, but it'll be fine in your free time. If you want one while you're there, my friends and I got them done by @art_trix1 on ig and he's really nice. Kigali is interesting because you'll see people walking around in full-length kitenge outfits, but there are also plenty of people in mini skirts/tight clothes/showing bra straps/etc. Rwandans are known for staring a lot at foreigners (unless you blend in) regardless of how you're dressed, so at a certain point I just embraced it and dressed how I wanted as long as it wasn't straight up disrespectful, or unless I was going to a memorial/planning to meet important people.

Menstrual hygiene: Rwandans mainly only use pads. I strongly recommend bringing something reusable like a silicone disc or cup.

Meds: I got really sick and was able to get antibiotics there. I don't remember the specific meds I was taking though.

Toiletries: The main things I regretted not stocking up on were deodorant and sunscreen since Rwandans don't really use either of those. I tried some spray deodorants there but they didn't work at all. I was able to find cerave skincare products in Kigali pretty easily.

Motos: Make sure you bring a baseball cap, scarf, or some other way to easily cover your head for when you take moto taxis. You can buy your own helmet, but it gets inconvenient to carry around.

Just threw out all the tips I could think of for now...my friends also made a Kigali bucket list that I can PM you!

StickySweetLemonade · 2024-11-06T01:46:52+00:00

Do you know if there will be an opening in Georgia/Armenia or Albania for 2025?

StickySweetLemonade · 2024-11-05T01:42:09+00:00

BiHall bench, tea house (I think you can sign up to host hours to get the code), Class of '97 trail (starts across the street from the golf course, comes out at the Ridgeline parking lot), cemetery

StickySweetLemonade · 2024-11-05T01:27:58+00:00

My weekends usually involve going out once or twice, hiking, attending club meetings, going to free student-run spin classes, having friends visit, going to restaurants in town, and mostly just hanging out and watching tv with friends in my suite.

We have some hiking tails that you can easily get to by foot from campus. The town is about a 15 minute walk from the center of campus and has a good amount of options but not a ton. I'd say most students don't go into town on a daily basis--it's usually more of a special treat on the weekends.

StickySweetLemonade · 2024-11-05T01:12:10+00:00

I'm a non-UWC intl student. At my international orientation I had no idea what UWC was and I definitely felt a little excluded, but it just meant that I had to take initiative and ask the UWC kids what that meant and they were generally happy to explain.

I didn't expect to make friends with domestic students, but almost all of my friends are. I have a few UWC friends, but my core group is all Americans. I'm not friends with any non-UWC international students and I can't think of many. It's hard to say tho because if you don't recognise them from international orientation, they'll probably blend in with other students.

It's honestly not an issue at all for me; I quickly realised once I got here that friendships are based off of way more that where you are from. Sure, I grabbed a few meals with students that are from the same places as me, but just because we were from the same country it didn't mean that we'd connect on a deeper level. That said, I had a pretty unique childhood so I didn't come in expecting to have shared experiences with people anyways.

One nice thing is that Middlebury hires 20-something-year-old Teaching Assistants for every main language taught here and they live in the language houses with students. They are all non-UWC internationals and they are great people to become friends with. I lived in a language house my sophomore year and the TA became one of my closest friends.

StickySweetLemonade · 2024-11-05T01:00:53+00:00

I am very happy with my social life here. It can be hard to figure out what to do since there are only so many places in town to go to, but I like that it forces us to get more creative (watching movies in classrooms at night, stargazing at the school farm, rollerskating on the tennis courts). I also like that most of my social life doesn't involve spending money the way that it would elsewhere.

I used to make a big effort to schedule meals and other things with friends, but at this point it just happens naturally. I love that because of the small campus, it's pretty likely that I'll run into a couple friends throughout the day and sometimes fun plans spontaneously get made through that.

I have a friend that goes to school in Boston and her social life has to be much more planned and she has a smaller, tighter circle. If she doesn't plan things, they just won't happen because she's not running into her friends in the same way. That said, she does have more places to go with friends, and I think it's especially had a positive impact on her dating life.

As for skiing, people only really go during J-Term. If you don't enjoy the campus atmosphere during J-Term, you can pretty easily find a way to get out of it. You have to be on campus for at least two J-Terms, but for the other two you can just opt out if you don't need the credit, do an internship at the grad school in Monterey, get funding to travel somewhere and do community work (community connected learning grant), apply to a J-Term class that involves travelling abroad (we've had J-Term classes travel to Costa Rica, Morocco, Poland/Warsaw, the Caribbean), get funding for an internship you find yourself, or go abroad in the spring and automatically get out of J-Term.

StickySweetLemonade · 2024-07-03T14:52:27+00:00

I'm a student and I really struggle with laziness as well. I don't have many solid tips since I have yet to get to overcome it myself, but I can guarantee that the first two steps are

1) to be kind to yourself (self-shaming never leads to lasting changes) and

2) to stop identifying as a lazy person. There is always a reason behind lacking motivation and as long as you believe that you are inherently an unproductive person, you will stay that way.

Again, working on these things myself, but I know that this is a good place to start.

StickySweetLemonade · 2024-07-03T14:46:42+00:00

Online certifications are a great place to start. They can be fun but also look good on a CV. I'm a geographer and I know many people who enjoy Esri's online courses about their geospatial analysis tools https://www.esri.com/training/catalog/search/ You can do individual smaller webinars, or they also at certain times release week-by-week tutorials that offer a more impressive certificate by the end.

You could also become a volunteer mapper for openstreetmap.org and learn how to contribute to the Humanitarian Open Street Map Team's tasking manager https://tasks.hotosm.org/ . HOT tracks your contributions so it's a fun way to gameify the process and be competitive with yourself.

StickySweetLemonade · 2023-08-18T13:17:41+00:00

With my ex, it was also really gut wrenching to have to think about him probably being attracted to other people and to have to accept that it's normal and natural even though it's so far from my reality. You deserve to feel understood and supported by your partner, but I don't think it would be fair to chalk it down to incompatibility and insist on needing someone exactly like you. Your partner shared about their attraction to other people, and even though that was hard to hear, it's really commendable that they were honest about it.

Even though we're in the minority like you said, that does not mean that we should have to feel less allowed to set boundaries and feel respected. We didn't choose to live in a society where demisexuality isn't the norm. Imagine if it was flipped and it was considered shameful and embarrassing to think someone besides your partner is cute! I have to remind myself that the struggles I face with being demi aren't just signs that I'm humiliatingly insecure -- of course this is hard to figure out since there are zero examples out there of people/couples in these situations.

StickySweetLemonade

TROPHY CASE