84. Peace Corps or Fraternity?

In some ways I feel like the Peace Corps is very much like a fraternity. The way they are most alike, I believe, is the “automatic” bond that those have who are involved.

My fraternity at the Ohio State University was not diverse in the terms of skin color or where members came from, but it was a mix of personalities and viewpoints. If you wanted to argue about a topic, there was someone in the fraternity who had the opposing view. If you wanted to celebrate about something, there was at least one person who felt the same way. But the one thing that I greatly enjoyed about the fraternity is that I became friends with people whom I might not have ever talked to, but because we were together working for a greater good our differences we worked through our disagreements.

The Peace Corps is very similar. I came into Moldova with around 70 people (plus the 50 that were already here) from ages 21 to 55 years old, every color of the rainbow, different religions, and many different life views. But because we all have the same goal and we are some of the few Americans in the country, we have bonded together and put aside out differences to really get to know each other on a deeper level than can be normally found in everyday life with a group so diverse.

So that is why I believe that the Peace Corps is like a fraternity. In a way, they both take you out of your element, focus you on a common goal and then you work and learn together which creates strong friendships that are difficult to form with a group that varies this much.