arts & cultural experiences
Love in the Time
of Peace Corps It wasn’ t supposed to happen to me. I wasn’ t supposed to be that girl. And yet, here I am, diving wholeheartedly into the cliché. I fell in love in the Peace Corps. I met my husband, Zlatko Dimovski in April of 2012 and we were wed in March of 2013. The following are the vows I read to him, in broken Macedonian, on our wedding day. Vulnerability be damned.
By Karli-Marie Reyes-Dimovska, MAK 16
Thinking back on all the expectations I had before joining the Peace Corps and coming to Macedonia, getting married was never part of the plan. Everyone told me I would meet someone special here, but I shrugged it off saying things like: I’ m not going to the Peace Corps to meet dudes!
We all join the Peace Corps for different reasons, to travel, to help people, to learn a new language and culture, to save the world.
Little did I realize it was not the world that needed saving, it was me.
I have always had a great capacity to love, but somewhere along the way, over the years, through the hardships, the pain, the heartbreak and struggles, I began to lose my capacity to be loved.
I am not a big believer in destiny or fate, but I do believe in timing. And I don’ t mean traveling half way around the world to meet you at 2am in Lektira- I mean I met you at just the right time in my life, a time when preparing to come to the Peace Corps had not only opened me up to a world of new possibilities, but also a world where I was able to open up myself and let love in, to let you in.
This was never the plan, but when you meet someone who loves you so wholeheartedly, unconditionally, and without expectation you realize that you would be a fool to ever want anything else.
To have and to hold, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, till death do us part- I’ ve heard these words a hundred times, but I never really understood them until I met you.
I thought learning to love again would be the hardest thing in the world, but loving you is completely effortless, because of who you are. You are kind and honest, reliable and thoughtful. You are an amazing man, best friend, son, brother, and husband. I feel lucky to have and to hold you; proud that you chose me to share your life with for better or for worse.
In you I have not just found love, but I have found a true partner. For the first time, someone I can truly see the rest of my life with in sickness and in health. For every inch I love you, you love me back three. And in that way our love will grow. Till death do us part.
16 – Pauza Magazine