Last night I got a sneak peek of my future life as a Foreign Service trainee at Oakwood in Falls Church, Virginia. All I can say is "me likey!" The highlights included seeing hotel-style housing nestled in a quiet suburb, kids of all ages frolicking in an outdoor pool, freshly-minted diplomats bonding over steaming seafood and ice cold beer, and non-stop talk about past and future travels (my personal favorite). All of this will be my part of my life beginning on July 18.
How did I get such a scintillating glimpse? Don't get the wrong idea. It was neither clandestine nor creepy. The short but sweet evening was actually a quick side trip during a book incubation seminar in which I participated in Washington, DC. The main purpose of the the all-day discussion was to receive expert feedback on my first crack at producing a scholarly manuscript that would contribute to our understanding of Middle East elections. Well, don't expect to pick up my highly-acclaimed book anytime soon. The past three years of dissertation work didn't appear to make muster in the exalted world of academia. Alas, maybe someone will want to publish my diplomatic memoirs one day (no, not you Wikileaks). But, I digress, as academics of all stripes tend to do.
Getting back to my Foreign Service tryst the night before, credit is entirely due to the hospitality afforded to me by Going Global, a former OA study buddy and Colorado resident who just began her A-100 training this week. She graciously invited me to visit on the day that newbies receive the highly anticipated list of available postings from which they will be assigned for their first two years. Now the countdown begins until I get my hot little hands on my own bid list. We'll see how much of my pre-conceived first tour preferences were merely wishful thinking.
In the meantime, things have been falling into place for the impending move. First and foremost, my wife received a coveted invite to the decisive stage of the foreign service officer hiring process and she scheduled her interview for September 9. She will be conveniently and comfortably located in nearby Falls Church, which by the way only took two emails for me to book our furnished apartment (more details forthcoming).
I'm feeling very confident that my young family will be happy in this interim environment. A decade ago my wife and I lived together just blocks from the U.S. Capitol amidst all the movers and shakers. We enjoyed being close to the action during those youthful and carefree years but having two small kids nowadays definitely creates a new calculus. I don't know about other diplomatic families in waiting but I fully intend to embrace the suburban lifestyle for a while. As this hilarious YouTube music video goes, "we'll be cruising in our swagger wagon!"
A final note and fitting end to this entry involves the salary offer I auspiciously received yesterday from my future employer after checking into my hotel just down the street from the State Department. Even though I had heard that some new hires have been pleasantly surprised by their compensation package, I was relieved and heartened to see how much my academic and professional experience factored into the final number. It convinced me that this is the right career for me and the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Thank you, Uncle Sam. See you soon!
A.B.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Who made "the call" possible
As many of you reading this new entry are probably aware, I received an official offer yesterday to join the next incoming class of Foreign Service Officers beginning on July 18. The "call" actually came in the form of a rather unceremonious email from a HR manager somewhere in the bowels of the State Department. I guess Hillary was too busy to give me a jingle. Hey, I'll take it though!
Yesterday was the culmination of not only a 18-month hiring process but also a lifelong dream of becoming a U.S. diplomat. Based on my coy "pre-announcement" blog nearly one month ago, some of you who don't know me well were probably expecting a more dramatic announcement yesterday. Unfortunately, I couldn't arrange a nationally-televised special to announce my "free-agency" decision: "I'm taking my talents to Foggy Bottom!" I was also tempted to scale my son's school and shout from the rooftop but I fear that the ensuing SWAT team deployment might have jeopardized my security clearance.
In all seriousness, it has been hard to balance the range of swirling emotions of fulfilling this dream. Since I "broke" the big news, a number of friends and family have commented graciously that they knew all my smarts and hard work would pay off (I'm a card-carrying nerd with a competitive streak inside me). I know that I was accepted into this highly coveted career track based on my own merits. I do, however, think that there are many people who enabled this achievement and supported me through all the various twists and turns to this point. While there is a natural tendency for my blogs to be self-centered, I'd like to take this opportunity to recognize some of those people here.
1) My parents first lit the fire in me for international travel and affairs. They took me out of sixth grade for a few weeks to accompany them to an international dog competition in Hungary where I experienced firsthand the Cold War reality of the iron curtain. For spring break of my senior year in high school, my dad handed me the reins to me to plan a side trip to Morocco. My parents would later bankroll my year studying abroad in Egypt and didn't entirely freak out when I told them that I was going to study Arabic in Yemen after graduating from college. Note: back then Yemen was a sleepy backwater of which people had only heard from a random episode of Friends. From that point, I was hopelessly infected with the travel bug but my parents deserve credit for nurturing this sense of curiosity and adventure in me. As an aside, I recently found an old picture of my late mother riding a camel in Morocco during her roaring twenties (I'll try to scan and post it later). I can only think that her spirit remains alive and well in me today.
2) My wife and children have been my most important support network over the past six years. The former endured my month-long sojourns for field research that enabled me to finish my dissertation and present a strong case to stone-faced interviewers why the time was right for me to join the Foreign Service. My two young sons also kept me grounded both literally and figuratively during the long wait for yesterday's offer. As many aspiring diplomats know, the hiring process is an exercise in patience that is laden with moments of acute anxiety along the way. Besides performing the routine tasks of child care every day, they helped me keep things in perspective. Minutes after learning the news yesterday morning, I was building legos and getting them ready to go to school. I confess that my head hasn't always been in the game over the last couple weeks (and particularly around 11:30am yesterday, sorry G!) but my family has been there for me and are now giving up a lot to follow me on this new journey.
There are obviously many others from whom I benefited and deserve my heartfelt appreciation. In the coming months, I will try to tell you personally how you helped make yesterday happen. For inquiring minds that want to know, I'll also share more in my next blog about what comes next, including details about where we will be living and our departure date. In the meantime, it's time to get to back to work and prepare for this new and exciting chapter in my life. Thank you to everyone who helped me turn the proverbial page yesterday!
Yesterday was the culmination of not only a 18-month hiring process but also a lifelong dream of becoming a U.S. diplomat. Based on my coy "pre-announcement" blog nearly one month ago, some of you who don't know me well were probably expecting a more dramatic announcement yesterday. Unfortunately, I couldn't arrange a nationally-televised special to announce my "free-agency" decision: "I'm taking my talents to Foggy Bottom!" I was also tempted to scale my son's school and shout from the rooftop but I fear that the ensuing SWAT team deployment might have jeopardized my security clearance.
In all seriousness, it has been hard to balance the range of swirling emotions of fulfilling this dream. Since I "broke" the big news, a number of friends and family have commented graciously that they knew all my smarts and hard work would pay off (I'm a card-carrying nerd with a competitive streak inside me). I know that I was accepted into this highly coveted career track based on my own merits. I do, however, think that there are many people who enabled this achievement and supported me through all the various twists and turns to this point. While there is a natural tendency for my blogs to be self-centered, I'd like to take this opportunity to recognize some of those people here.
1) My parents first lit the fire in me for international travel and affairs. They took me out of sixth grade for a few weeks to accompany them to an international dog competition in Hungary where I experienced firsthand the Cold War reality of the iron curtain. For spring break of my senior year in high school, my dad handed me the reins to me to plan a side trip to Morocco. My parents would later bankroll my year studying abroad in Egypt and didn't entirely freak out when I told them that I was going to study Arabic in Yemen after graduating from college. Note: back then Yemen was a sleepy backwater of which people had only heard from a random episode of Friends. From that point, I was hopelessly infected with the travel bug but my parents deserve credit for nurturing this sense of curiosity and adventure in me. As an aside, I recently found an old picture of my late mother riding a camel in Morocco during her roaring twenties (I'll try to scan and post it later). I can only think that her spirit remains alive and well in me today.
2) My wife and children have been my most important support network over the past six years. The former endured my month-long sojourns for field research that enabled me to finish my dissertation and present a strong case to stone-faced interviewers why the time was right for me to join the Foreign Service. My two young sons also kept me grounded both literally and figuratively during the long wait for yesterday's offer. As many aspiring diplomats know, the hiring process is an exercise in patience that is laden with moments of acute anxiety along the way. Besides performing the routine tasks of child care every day, they helped me keep things in perspective. Minutes after learning the news yesterday morning, I was building legos and getting them ready to go to school. I confess that my head hasn't always been in the game over the last couple weeks (and particularly around 11:30am yesterday, sorry G!) but my family has been there for me and are now giving up a lot to follow me on this new journey.
There are obviously many others from whom I benefited and deserve my heartfelt appreciation. In the coming months, I will try to tell you personally how you helped make yesterday happen. For inquiring minds that want to know, I'll also share more in my next blog about what comes next, including details about where we will be living and our departure date. In the meantime, it's time to get to back to work and prepare for this new and exciting chapter in my life. Thank you to everyone who helped me turn the proverbial page yesterday!
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