application in progress

I started the application process to the Peace Corps in December. According to the web site the process from initial application to shipping out can take as long as a year, but here I am only in February already in the last steps of my progress. If all goes well with my physicals, I may be leaving as soon as late May. I can hardly believe it. I was kind of looking forward to one last summer biking the burgh, making music with Ashley who finally moved close by, and spending more time on the farm, but seeing as leaving at that time would mean that I will be working at my top preference of jobs, I can't really complain.
Right now all I have to do is be cleared medically which is turning into a lot more trouble than it sounds since getting appointments with all the necessary doctors is taking much longer than I was hoping.
My current preparations are not moving along as quickly as I had hoped since I'm still working so much, however that is a bout to change. I've decided that given the unhealthy atmosphere of drama, backstabbing, and lies floating around my work environment, that I'm going to cut back my hours and spend more time focusing on things and people who are worth my time and energy.
It's been a very rough 6 months or so given the loss of one old friend and old flame to suicide, plus having to move 3 times, and being abandoned by my oldest friend for no reason other than she values an abusive, manipulative, cretin who does nothing but keep her down over the people who have actually been there for her with support and love on every level that she has ever reached out on.
I'm finally realizing that my expectation for people are too high. I continually make excuses for people who do nothing but take and take from relationships without a thought for the other person unless they can somehow use a good deed as bait to be allowed to take a little more. I finally realize that people like a certain individual I work with who has done nothing but lied to me our entire friendship just aren't worth my time. Why should I continue to make concessions and forgive and forget when I have done nothing to deserve such disrespect? It's a relief to realize that I'm free to write these people off, because it's not my place to constantly make things better for them. In this realization is freedom.
Suddenly 27 months of living the life I want isn't a thing to fear because those that matter to me will still be there for me when I get back and anyone who isn't wasn't worth my time, commitment, and support from the start.
I'm ready to embark on this journey knowing that my commitment to the corps is me living my life in the only way that makes sense to me, with utter commitment to giving of myself to give others a basis for providing for themselves and improving their community.