The 7 Things I Love About the Foreign Service - I Am A Triangle
My husband joined the Department of State’s Foreign Service (the U.S. diplomatic corps) seven years ago. He didn’t apply to join for many years although we are both international travel and language aficionados, met while studying abroad in Russia, and lived there together for two years after college graduation. He did not want me to compromise my career and move around the world every two to three years. So he waited to accept the offer until the day before the deadline to return the signed offer letter – he literally sent it overnight via FedEx.
Our first child was a newborn at the time and we loved our house, friends, and close-knit neighborhood outside of Washington, D.C. where we had lived for five years. But we asked ourselves: “How will we feel in 10 years if we are still here and didn’t take this chance? Will we regret it?” While the last seven years have been more than challenging at times (in less than one year I moved three times halfway around the world; gave birth in the U.S. while living temporarily at my parent’s house with my two year old; lost my dear father and last living grandfather and grandmother; and my first business partner resigned), I can still say we would have regretted not taking this giant leap. Here’s why.