Looking back, did your views of the world change after your service?

Innocence lost is the best way I can explain it,coming from an insular Northeastern neighborhood and being suddenly and sometimes violently exposed to different cultures and ways of life was in fact eye opening,I think that I learned more of the human condition in the three years of my Service than all of the 71 years I've been on the planet.

They didn't really change, but I can tell you that building a basic school building for a poor village in Costa Rica and seeing their incredibly grateful faces (plus the huge meal they cooked for us) certainly made me re-adjust how I saw just how blessed we are here. It made me more sympathetic/empathetic to others.

Naivety definitely gave way to cynicism..