Brittany McGee

Mondays.

Monday is the day after Sunday. The first day back at work. The first day counting down until the weekend.

No one likes them. No one says, “Hey, I’m excited that today is Monday!” unless, of course Monday is a holiday, like Memorial or Labor days.

As a Peace Corps Volunteer, my job is technically a 24/7 gig. Weekends off are not a thing.

But, my work is also not a typical 9-5 job. A lot of my job is to just be present in my site, building relationships with my host family and community members. Something that I’d like to think is going really well right now.

Most of my Saturdays and Sundays have been spent with my host family, learning about them and the town. I also spent two Saturdays trying to figure out what happened to a Youth Group, but that’s another story for another time.

This past weekend, I decided to take some me time, or rather me plus 11 other volunteers, plus a whole hostel full of people time. Despite the number of English speaking, like-minded people I was around, I found a lot of time to just relax and learn more about myself.

The weekend was over in the blink of an eye and before I knew it I was sleeping on a combi back to my site early Monday morning. As I walked home, I felt annoyed that I had scheduled a meeting for 11AM and had things to accomplish that afternoon. In that groggy moment, I remembered what it was like to hate Mondays.

While I would have preferred to call off my meeting, I threw on some clothes and walked across town, the sun burning my skin on the way. I swear while I was gone, the sun became stronger and Olmos became hotter. I met with my municipality counterpart and we chatted for about 30 minutes, and that conversation completely changed how I felt about the day.

Suddenly, Monday no longer was awful. It was a day to be productive, get things done and start the week off right. And so, I did.