Time passes. The sun comes up. The sun goes down. I sleep, eat, read books, stream Netflix, and hang out in Mom's pool, tossing the occasional tennis ball for the dog. I thought that I would be bored stiff after two weeks, but it seems that - like everyday people who find new strength and courage in difficult times - I have adapted to this ( Read more... )

This morning I woke up to the greatest email ever - an offer for the September Junior Foreign Service Officer class! Huzzah! After years of trying I am finally in, finally got what I've wanted for so long. It feels good ( Read more... )

Okay, so ( Read more... )

No one gets into the Foreign Service by themselves. I couldn't have done it without the moral and material support my family and friends gave me. I couldn't have done it without the time, patience and constructive criticism of my study group. And now at least 20 of my friends, family members, employers and professors are giving up some of their ( Read more... )

( Long recap of the orals behind the cut. )

Ooh, my head. I am hungover, because I got drunk last night, because I was out partying, because I passed the Foreign Service Exam. It was so worth it ( Read more... )

It happens tomorrow. I am strangely serene. Perhaps after dreaming about this for years and actively planning and fretting and hyperventilating over this for months on end I have actually reached the end of my capacity for anxiety. I am all worried out. I've done everything I can do to prepare for this. There's nothing left but to get up tomorrow ( Read more... )

FS exam in 6 more days. I'm crossing my T's and dotting my I's, getting all my papers together, having my suit drycleaned, and generally psyching myself up. One of the papers I have to bring with me is the Statement of Interest, a one-page response to the deceptively simple request, "Please use the space below to describe why you want to be a FSO ( Read more... )

I have enough little stories of my brilliance for all the dimensions the FS examiners are likely to ask me direct questions about except one: Objectivity and Integrity. Have I ever had the opportunity to show bias and didn't? Do you have such a story I could plagiarize for my own nefarious purposes? (Just kidding. Mostly.)

I've finally gotten around to my 13 dimensions mini-essays, in which I attempt to brainstorm at least two stories from my life so far that exemplify each of the 13 D's, with as little overlap as possible. It's going okay, I guess. Some of the D's I had so many stories for the challenge was to pick out the best ones. Cultural Adaptability, for ( Read more... )