"Ameri-what?"

I'm frequently surprised by how little most people know about AmeriCorps. I've had to explain it to so many people that I know the conversation by heart...

Parent/Friend: McKinley, this is my friend _______!
Stranger: It's nice to meet you!
Me: It's so nice to meet you too!
....followed by polite conversation, which eventually leads to:
S: So where are you going to school?
M: I'm going to Western Washington University, up in Bellingham. I love it there!
S: How wonderful! My friend/son/daughter/cousin/friend's friend/aunt/parent went/goes there as well! When do you go back?
M: Well, actually... I'm taking a year off.
S: Oh?
M: Yeah, I'm doing this program called AmeriCorps, Have you heard of it?
S: No, I haven't...
M: Oh. Well....it's a ten month volunteer service program. I start in October.

This, of course, opens a floodgate of questions:

Ameri-what?
AmeriCorps. It's pronounced Ameri-Core. I'm not dead, so please, please, please, don't say Ameri-Corpse. The -ps is silent.

What sort of work will you do?
It could be a wide variety of things. AmeriCorps identifies five categories of service that I could be doing:
1. Natural and other disasters 
2. Infrastructure improvement
3. Environmental stewardship and conservation
4. Energy conservation
5. Urban and rural development

Do you know where they're sending you?
I got placed in the Pacific Region, so I'll be starting in Sacramento, CA. I'll be at the AmeriCorps campus there for a month of training before we're ready to start projects. I won't know the location of my first project until after I get to Sacramento and we are arranged into teams.

So will you go out of the country at all?
No. It's called AmeriCorps for a reason.

How long is it?
Um... I already said it was 10 months. I'm not kidding.

So if it's volunteer they don't pay you, right?
Actually, I'll get a living stipend throughout the program, and if I complete the program I'll get an Education Award of around $5,000, which can be used to pay for school.

Do you know anyone else who's going?
Nope! That's part of the excitement! There will be people in California from all over the country. I'm so excited to meet them all!

But... aren't you scared?
No. Nervous, maybe, but I'm not scared. I feel like I understand what I'm getting in to. I feel prepared. I think the right word for my emotional state right now would be anticipation. So much anticipation has been building up since I got the email... I think I might burst.

...aaannd my personal favorite:
Are you out of your f**king mind? Why in the world would you do that?!
Hahaha. Yeah, I might be. The thing is, sometimes I'm still not sure why I'm going. What reason is big enough to leave my family, my friends from college and my life in Bellingham? What motivates me to say yes to ten months of work with people I've never met when I don't even know where we'll be or what we'll be doing?
I think I have two answers.
1. Adventure. I have three years left of college, and after that, what? Travel? Will I have the money for that? I doubt it. I have to take this opportunity while I have it at my fingertips. There's no point to waiting.
2. Time to think. I still don't know what I want to do with my life right now.  I'm currently on track to major in Environmental Studies, but by the end of last year, I started to wonder if that was really right for me. I'm hoping that a year off with AmeriCorps will give me some time to see the world, figure out my own goals, and maybe find a direction for my life.

S: Well that sounds fascinating. Good luck in San Francisco!
M: ...Sacramento. But thanks.