Thursday, April 3, 2014

Moving forward into a new adventure

Am writing from snowy Boulder, CO, which picked up a good 4-5 inches of snow overnight and is looking quite pretty.  And a little chilly.

Muriel and I have some exciting and fast moving news to share, as we now have clarity about what the next phase in our life will entail.  On Monday, I was offered an appointment into the US Foreign Service as an Economic Officer.  I accepted the offer and will start my job in Washington, DC on May 5th.  Diplomatic corps here we come!

In reality, making this choice took significant thought and consideration on a quick timeline.   The process of these offers is highly condensed, so I had 48 hours to decide whether to take the position or let it pass.   I woke up on Monday morning after a full weekend of skiing and socializing to an email from the State Department that started: “The Registrar's Office is pleased to extend an appointment offer for the May 5, 2014 – Generalist Class.  If you are available for placement in the May 5th Generalist Class, please notify the Registrar’s Office of your response, via email, no later than noon, Wed. April 2, 2014.”  Whoa, I snapped awake pretty quick – we had some serious thinking to do. Passing on the offer could mean that this opportunity would not come again.  Accepting means embarking on a job that is more than a job, it is really a lifestyle.

Thankfully, that lifestyle is one that Muriel and I have embraced and thrived in over the last couple of years.  Knowing that we had that capacity, and really a hunger, for a nomadic, wanderlust life made taking the job pretty easy on the personal side.   Still not automatic, but easier.  It means a great deal to know that we can revel in the uncertainty of the unknown, and even when things get a bit pear shaped along the way make it work.  

Why are we thrilled for this new journey?

-  These last 21 months of traveling, visiting and recreating have been sublime.  It really has been an incredible journey through forty countries across the entire range of global wealth, governance, recreation and history.   We have gotten to fulfill many long held dreams.  I thought about when I have been the happiest, the most engaged and the most in flow in my 34 years on this earth and concluded that this adventure is the apex, so far.  Once I came to that realization, the Foreign Service made perfect sense because it is a job that endows so many of the attributes we have sought out and loved on our current adventure.

 - One thing that made the decisions a little trickier is that I was in the pipeline for a couple of job opportunities that were very exciting and intriguing.  Jobs that I would have loved to take, if I got them.  This made it a little tougher to lock into this choice when faced with genuine counterfactuals.  Applying for job I have found that each time I hit submit, I spend at least as long as I prepared on the application imagining my life in the job.  What is the work like?  How would it affect my personal life?  Picking one opportunity necessarily closes off others.  This is really a reflection of opportunity cost and would be the same with any final decision about the next steps in the Korol’s life.  But having that process be condensed to 48 hours made it harder emotionally, because a big part of me would love to work for a cool company in the States doing corporate sustainability, seeing lots of friends and skiing/rock climbing.  You know kind of like my old life in San Francisco.   The one I loved.  But the appeal of that life, while substantial, ultimately fell short to the appeal of the potential challenges and successes of the unknown and the new. 

- Related to that point is another reason that I came to really appreciate this opportunity.   Going through this long, long process that has taken 14 months from the initial test in Nairobi to today, I have had this nagging feeling that the Foreign Service was a departure from what I had been doing and building to date in my career.  That is not necessarily true, but then I flipped that around and realized that in fact the departure from my norm was a feature not a bug.  Trying new things is what keeps me vital and for this, there will certainly be a bunch of new things to learn.  I will stretch, fail, grow all at once and hope to be doing that the rest of my life.

- Next, it is a profound honor to be selected as a representative of what a good friend described as 'what is good about America' and not a position that I take lightly. We have the fortune of coming from a great country, a leader in the world and one that provides inspiration to literally billions of people.  Is everything perfect?  Of course not.  But, we as a nation provide so much good to the world and it is a privilege that I will be a representative of this country that has given me so much.  I also hope that my work will improve the lives of the places where I serve, from the wealthy, say Monaco, to developing, take Malawi, countries.

America
- Finally, family and friends are the backbone of our life and one downside of this choice is that it will certainly take us away from many milestones in the lives of people we love.  That is a reality of the role.  Technology does ease that pain point quite a bit and I am confident we can manage and see people plenty either in the U.S. or through visits to us in the field.  There is also a concern that Mu and I might have to be separate for postings for a variety of reasons.  We will try our best to avoid that, but again it is a reality. 

In sum, in our view the positives far outweigh the negatives and we are on our way.  DC bound for May 5th, not sure where the first post will take us while embracing the new lifestyle on which we embark.  It has been a whirlwind making the decision and then starting to plan for our new path.  A wonderful whirlwind. 

There are many adventures to come and we hope to share them with you in person and in this space.  Much love.

 m+w

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