Today is cloudy with a chance of rain. We have been and will be in the 60’s the whole of the week. This is fall.

I never learned to play the piano though I took lessons for a short time when I was in the second grade. A nun was my teacher, and I used to walk across the street to one end of the convent for lessons. But because we didn’t have a piano, I could never practice. The nun suggested I might want to explore other interests. I figure she must have told me delicately as my psyche remained unscathed. I never did try another instrument, and a year later my singing career ended when the nun told me to lip sing. I became a listener of music instead of a participant. I have never been disappointed.

I have the soul of a wanderer. Even since I was really young, books of faraway places held my imagination. When I was eleven, I vowed to travel the world. I knew I’d go to South American, the Sahara Desert, markets in African and places where not a soul spoke English. I was never afraid but self-assured. I knew what I was meant to do.

During my senior year in college, I pursued a few different future avenues. I applied to law school and got accepted, and I was even offered a teaching job, but neither of those fit where I saw myself in the future. They were too staid, floating too much in the mainstream. I applied to the Peace Corps in October. That’s how soon I knew what I wanted to do. Where I went wasn’t important. It was the going that counted. That I ended up in Africa was like a dream, a wish come true. After all these years, my heart is still filled with a love for Ghana, for its people, its sounds and smells, its sights and amazing colors. My old vow, my promise, the one I made when I was eleven has been fulfilled not only in Ghana but also in so many other places.

I have always been an idealist. I consider it one of my best traits. I took tap dancing lessons a while back. I’m still filled with dreams.