The Adventure Begins

Post by R

It's for real now.  J is well on her way to D.C. (or the Imperial City as I'm apt to somewhat affectionately call it) and I'm back at the home front.  It's true, I am completely and totally supportive of J's dream-chasing.  I also fully admit that when she first expressed serious interest in joining the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer I suspected it would be an uphill climb.  Just take a look at J's first blog post if you doubt that; the odds were against her.  We're talking about J though, so odds don't mean so much.  Give her a chance and she will excel, of that I had no doubt. 

I'll miss Wyoming.  Even though I was Jersey born and raised I have become quite fond of this free, honest, wide-open state.  I've spent time in just about every corner of it while travelling for work and I will have some regrets about leaving it.  That said, the itch to move on has always been there.  J and I met as vagabonds and we spent the first 15 years of our married life as vagabonds, living in various parts of the U.S. and Europe.  New adventures are in our DNA.

Right now everything is dependent on what transpires on a certain date, September 26th.  That's when J will find out where in the world she is headed to.  We cannot make any decisions regarding the house, our pets, my employment, etc. until that date.  Meanwhile I've started divesting ourselves of unneeded possessions and am doing some projects around the house to help prepare it for eventual sale.  I also don't know if, and for how long, I might be joining J in Washington.  I will be eligible, on a space-available basis, to attend language training at the same time as J if her first assignment requires foreign language ability.  If it does, I will want to do everything I can to take advantage of that.  We have both spent enough time overseas to know that it is completely worth the effort.  I've been to Poland while speaking Polish, and J has been to the Czech Republic while speaking Czech.  We have also been to numerous countries where we did not speak the native language.  Being able to speak in the local tongue is infinitely more rewarding.

On a side note, 700 or so bicyclists are in town tonight in conjunction with the Tour de Greater Yellowstone (or something like that).  Most are camped out in City Park. I'm sure they'll leave with positive impressions of Lander; it's that kind of town.  We'll miss it too.

Pre-Diplomatic Cross-Country Tour, Day Two

Post by J

In case you had any doubt, driving over 1200 miles in two days really takes it out of a girl.

Today's travels took me through the rest of Nebraska, 10 minutes of Iowa, and a majority of Missouri. I finally came to rest in southern Illinois. Nebraska's fields gave way to Missouri's deciduous trees, a welcome change. I set the cruise to just over the speed limit and ate up the miles, landing in Booneville for lunch around 1:00 p.m. local time.

I was looking for something with a local flavor, so I pulled in to Yummy's Donut Palace. The outside of the building sported a huge sign advertising "Kolaches," a word I had never heard before, so I figured it had to be a local delicacy. As I approached the building, a tall twenty-something guy was coming out and held the door for me.

"Thanks," I said.

"You're welcome, ma'am," he replied. Southern hospitality lives.

The place was empty when I went in, so I didn't feel self-conscious asking the woman behind the counter to tell me all about these kolaches.

"Well," she said. "Here in Missouri, we use sausage. Now, the further south you get you can get other things like cheese or egg. Basically, it's like pigs in a blanket." She pointed to a picture of a kolache that stood on the counter. Sure enough, it looked like a hot dog wrapped in bread dough and baked.  In other words, it looked delicious.

"I think I'll have to try one," I said.

"Nope, sorry.  We don't have any today - our oven's broken."

Bummer. So much for diving into the local delicacies. I settled for a ham and cheese croissant and an apple fritter as big as my hand, and promised myself I'd have a salad for dinner.

Over the last two days I listened to Cheryl Strayed's Wild while driving. Honestly, it is the perfect book to listen to when you're pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and sailing into the unknown. An added bonus to me was her honest and poignant description of her struggle to come to terms with her mother's death. I could so relate to what she went through. Listening to the book made the miles slide away as my mind was focused on something else. Perfect.

Pre-Diplomatic Cross-Country Tour, Day One

Post by J

I love how vast America is. I love that it will take me five days to drive from Wyoming to Virginia. Of course, this is Day One. Ask me how I feel on Day Five.

I left Wyoming a little before nine o'clock this morning, heading east. The plan is to front-load the trip with lots of miles the first two days so that I can more leisurely explore the states through which I'll be travelling toward the end of the week. Today I logged in excess of 600 miles and am spending the night near Grand Island, Nebraska.

Driving from Sweetwater Station to Muddy Gap, I was unexpectedly flooded with memories: Stopping at Mad Dog and the Pilgrim to purchase an old book, talking with my dad and having him refer to Jeffrey City as "Jeff City" (of course, he has also been known to refer to the president of the Confederacy as Jeff Davis, as if he knows him personally), and stopping to take a photograph of the Ferris Mountains back when H was an undergrad at the University of Wyoming. Amazing how that lonesome (some might consider desolate) 60-mile stretch of highway holds such vivid images for me. Imagine how I'm struggling to compartmentalize the millions of moments that represent the 15 or 30 mile radius from my home over the last 13 years.

I raced through Rawlins and along I-80 to Laramie and Cheyenne, names synonymous with the Old West, and that I take for granted.

I didn't stop until I needed gas and something to eat. I had reached Sydney, Nebraska and had started to see the country of Willa Cather and Bess Streeter Aldrich. My Antonia and A Lantern in Her Hand were among my favorite books growing up, and the fields of corn and alfalfa that I saw along the Interstate brought those stories back to me. I identify with the uniquely American experience of pioneering in the West, of making do with less, of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. When you come from humble beginnings, you tend to appreciate the opportunities that America provides. This is why, for me, joining the Foreign Service is an extraordinary honor.

A Little Background Information

Post by J

For those on the outside looking in, what seems like a lightning-fast career change for me actually was over a year in the making. This post gives a little background on how I got to this moment, to the evening before I drive cross-country (2000 miles and five days) to begin my life as a Foreign Service Officer.

There are many, many blogs out there that provide an amazing amount of information regarding how to apply to join the foreign service. I know this because I obsessively read dozens of them and found good advice, inspiration, hope, and perspective during my journey to this point. Just do a quick search on the All-Knowing Google, and you'll find enough reading material to seriously jeopardize your ability to do anything else but read blogs and fantasize about a State Department career, such is the appeal and ultimately, the time-suck, that is this obsession.

The very beginning:  R was a career military man and we were fortunate enough for him to have served a tour in the Defense Attache Office of a U.S. Embassy overseas in the late 90s. I had very little knowledge of the Foreign Service prior to that tour, but I became immediately fascinated. I worked as the Community Liaison Office Coordinator during our time there and loved being part of the Embassy culture. R and I discussed the possibility of "going State" after he retired from the Army, but really, it was just a wonderful daydream at the time.  

Several years later, R and I took what was then referred to as the FSWE (Foreign Service Written Exam). I think that was back in 2004, but it could have been 2003. Anyway, this was before the State Department utilized email for official communication (I know we did provide our email address, but I don't remember ever receiving anything via email from them regarding the test, or our results). For whatever reason, neither of us passed.

Then in 2013, a random email from State appeared in our inbox (keep in mind we had heard nothing from them for at least eight years). The email basically said, "So, you showed interest in a Foreign Service career in the past, and if you're still interested, register to take the test during this window." Since we had both provided the same email address initially, it was completely unclear to whom this most recent email was directed.  

A lot had happened in the intervening eight years, of course. R had moved on and entered a profession that he really enjoys. I had a well-established career that was fulfilling. We were comfortable in our small town and had a good life. Why would we want to shake that up, drastically change our lifestyle, pack up everything and move? And yet, once that email arrived I kept thinking about the possibility of a Foreign Service career. And what could possibly be the harm in taking the test? Just a cursory search showed that the odds of actually being invited to A-100 (the initial Foreign Service Officer orientation course) are pretty slim - fewer than 2% of those who take the test actually become FSOs.

R and I talked about it and thought about it for a couple of weeks. Ultimately, R decided he did not want to pursue becoming an FSO. But this is where his awesomeness comes in to play. I asked, "What would you say if I tried?" To which he immediately replied, "Go for it.  I'm behind you all the way."

The quick and dirty steps to becoming an FSO (if you're unsuccessful at any point during this process, your "candidacy" ends and you have to start all over - and you can only take the FSOT once every 365 days):

1. Take the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT)
2. If you pass the FSOT, you are invited to submit short (about 200 word) answers to six essay prompts (Personal Narrative Questions, or PNQs), describing how certain of your experiences demonstrate each of 13 different "dimensions" (read more about the 13Ds here). If you don't pass the FSOT, your candidacy ends and you must wait nearly a year to take the test again.
3. If the Board of Examiners (BEX), after reviewing your entire file (including resume, FSOT results, and PNQs), likes your application packet enough, you will be invited to travel to Washington, DC (on your own dime) to participate in the Oral Assessment (OA).  If the BEX doesn't like your packet enough, your candidacy ends, and you must start all over with the FSOT.
4. The OA consists of three parts: The Group Exercise (GE), the Structured Interview (SI), and the Case Management (CM) exercise. Your performance in each of these is scored independently, but your overall score for the day is the average of the three. To pass the OA, you must receive at least a score of 5.25 out of 7.  If you receive less than a 5.25, your candidacy ends and you must start all over with the FSOT.
5. If you pass the OA, you must receive both medical and security clearances - the medical clearance is usually pretty quickly determined, but a security clearance can take several months or even a year or more, depending on your background.
6. Once your clearances are in place, you are added to the "register," which is dynamic and rank-ordered based on your OA score.
7. If you are not invited to A-100 within 18 months of being on the register, you "time off" and your candidacy ends.

My timeline:

1. FSOT:  June 2013
2. Pass FSOT, invited to submit PNQs:  July 2013
3. Pass PNQs, invited to OA:  September 2013
4. Pass OA:  November 2013
5. Medical clearance:  December 2013
6. Security clearance:  May 2014
7. Added to register:  May 2014
8. Invite to A-100:  June 2014
9. A-100:  August 25, 2014

I'll write more at a later time about my motivation to join, especially at this time in our lives.