Originally Published Feb. 23, 2018
Alexander Pushkin wrote in his poem Captive of the Caucasus:
"He turned his back on his native borders
And flew off to a far-away land,
Alongside the merry ghost of freedom."
The Caucasus is a nebulous region, often inciting the use of Google Maps or Wikipedia when I bring it, or the countries that make up the region, in conversation. It lies on the borders of how we think of the east and the west, and act as a bottle-necked land mass between the Caspian and Black Seas. It's surrounded by some of the world's biggest political players: Russia to the north, and Turkey and Iran to the south. Confined between these power players are Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, all former states of the USSR.
Last March I found myself doing what you may be doing right now, pulling up a tab to see where the Caucasus lies on a map. More specifically, I was pinpointing Armenia. The tiny country where I was hoping to secure a position with the Peace Corps. I was stuck at a crossroads during my final semester at school. I knew I didn't want to sink into a career immediately after graduating, I felt too restless for that. I knew that I wanted travel and new experiences to feed my appetite for adventure. But I knew true wandering wasn't going to leave me fulfilled. It didn't take much to settle on the Peace Corps. Far off lands, no (super) long term commitment, and a chance to defer on my student loans for a time? Sold. And that takes us back to this scene: me pulling up Google Maps to find out where the hell Armenia is.
Once the idea was planted, I dove in. "Peace Corps or bust!" was my attitude. Luckily, I only had to apply twice, once to Ukraine, and then to Armenia. The application process, especially after being placed under consideration, was tedious, and a focal point of anxiety in my life for some time; as of December 2017, I was all cleared to begin my Peace Corps service in Armenia.
So here I am, on the cusp of embarking on a great adventure, writing a blog. My foremost motivation for doing so is that I'd like a medium where I can record my travels and experiences while I'm overseas. Through WordPress, not only can I update my friends and family on my life in Armenia, but I can, hopefully, impart some cultural awareness and intrigue to those of you who may not know much about my host country and it's famously hospitable people. I also wanted a platform that provided a degree of accountability for how I hope to grow personally. Photography is my passion, and I plan to use my images to tell stories and share the beauty of Armenia and beyond.
Here are a few bullets to keep in mind as I develop this blog:
- Shared through this blog are my experiences, opinions, beliefs, and perspectives, photographic or otherwise, and are exclusively my own unless otherwise stated.
- I'm not a novelist, a poet, or a playwright. Please, bear with me as I find my voice through this blog. I will most certainly grow over the next two years, and I hope that my writing, particularly this style, is wedded to that growth.
- On that same thread of growth - I CANNOT IMPROVE IF I AM WRITING IN AN ECHO CHAMBER. Please interact with me through this blog. I want to share my experiences with the Peace Corps, but I want it to be experiences my friends, family, and others want to read about. I'm always open to constructive criticism and suggestions on what I should share.
- Please take everything I share through this blog with a grain or ten of salt. Although I'm going to do my best to write, photograph, and share accurately, I am not capable of giving you, the reader, a full and objective picture. This is the world through the lens of Alex.
I'm turning my back on my "native borders", as I've never stayed for more than a little over a year away from Alaska. Armenia is certainly a "far-away land", not only in miles, but in culture, language and the like. I'm now a less than a month away from boarding a plane to Armenia, 25 days exactly from the time of this post. The lazy Sundays and Monday family dinners number 3. The butterflies are in full force, and I don't imagine they'll be quelled until after my plane touches down 5390 miles away from home. And with that, I would like to invite you all to join me and my "merry ghost of freedom" on this adventure.
