Barry Allen:  

Life I graduated from UW-Madison in 2001 with a degree in History and had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. All I knew was that I was ready to get out of the States. So, I joined the Peace Corps. I taught accounting in Francophone, West Africa (Benin) for two years and loved every minute of it. The initial culture shock wasn't nearly as bad as the reverse culture shock I experienced upon returning to the States. Try walking into Wal-Mart after spending two years in an African village. (I almost fell over.) I returned to the States in December 2003 and proceeded to waste the following year of my life answering phones at Time Warner Cable's Milwaukee call center while waiting for grad school to start. Some of you probably called and screamed at me without knowing who I was. It's okay, though. I learned to deal with the thankless job and the aggression it generated by egging the houses of particularly mean customers on my days off. I enrolled ...Expand for more