In many ways, my time in the Peace Corps was not at all like that of the volunteers – I was a teenager, not an aid worker, growing up and trying to find my place at the Sultan Abdul Hamid College, one of Malaysia’s oldest and most prestigious schools.
In other ways , integration for me mirrored what many PCVs go through. My first year was very hard; I had no close friends, and the school culture, taught in the British tradition, was entirely different than what I was used to.
By my second year though, I had found a good group of friends and was having the time of my life. An outspoken American teenager, I got into all kinds of trouble. My friends taught me to swear, as all teenagers love to, in Malay, Tamil, Hokkien and Mandarin. I traveled throughout the country, with many trips to Penang, and I came to learn so much about the culture, politics and history of the Malaysian people.
The experience had a huge impact on me – back in the states, I worked as a VISTA volunteer for a few years after college before pursuing a law degree – but as my professional career (and personal life) got busier, the connection I felt to the Peace Corps faded.
