Musings 2: Layers of Experience: Coming Full Circle

The awesome layers of rock, from different ages and eons, that make up the majestic Grand Canyon, are like the layers of experience that compose our lives.

Our lives are layers of experiences, one on top of the other, sometimes running parallel to each other, sometimes blending together. Being a Peace Corps Volunteer has created another layer. For someone in her 7th decade, that's a lot of layering. It's gets down to that AARP adage (attributed to Abraham Lincoln) about "adding life to your years, not years to your life."

My Peace Corps adventure comes on top of many other layers: growing up in Rochester, NY; going to Wheaton college near Boston; attending graduate school in Madison, Wisconsin; children and family life in Toledo; humanities work in Washington, DC and Florida; teaching American history and women’s history at the University of Toledo and at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.

These layers of experience sometimes seemed connected, sometimes disconnected, even disjointed. They brought joy and sorrow, achievements and mistakes, and often a sense of contribution to community, like my teaching, civil rights, and family violence prevention work in Ohio and, in DC, serving as an elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for my Dupont Circle neighborhood.

Now I am completing my Peace Corps service, and I will be moving back to Toledo, close to my children and grandchildren for the first time in 26 years. I never thought I’d return to Toledo. When I was away, returning seemed a remote possibility. It felt like going backwards. Now it feels right. I have come full circle: I will add another layer of experience on top of the others, with a renewed sense of purpose and meaning. I will return home, enriched by my Peace Corps experience.