El futuro / The Future

Last week, my political science class had a guest speaker – the Consul-General of the U.S. Embassy in Madrid. This means that she is a member of the Foreign Service, a career that I have considered at various points. I love languages, traveling, experiencing different cultures, meeting new people, international relations and diplomacy, etc. This is a job where if you are assigned to a place where you don’t know the language, your job for 9 months will be to go to school and learn that language. This is a job where every 3-4 years you get to move to a new country. I want so badly to see as much of the world as I can. However, there are some major downsides to working for the Foreign Service. You have to do your time in less desirable places in the beginning – like places where they pay you more because of the danger level. Some assignments you aren’t even allowed to bring family (like Iraq right now). You have to move every 3-4 years. I’ve spent my whole life moving and I’m not sure I could handle that. And finally, the reason I don’t think I could ever do this as a career – family. First of all, I already hate being far away from my family. Secondly, since I’m talking about this in terms of a career, I want to get married and have kids. Probably 3 or 4 (though I always say ask me again after the first one :-P). I refuse to do that to my kids. I moved 6 times by the time I was 13. We even got lucky and were in Novato twice for three years each time and I still hated the moving. I’m not saying I would never move my kids, because I can’t anticipate life circumstances. But I can’t choose a career knowing that’s what would happen. I hate to say it because I love so much of what the Foreign Service would mean for me. It’s the perfect job for what I’m interested in – but I just don’t think I could deal with the drawbacks; I want my life to be more than just my job. I may take the entrance exam at some point anyway, just to see what happens. Or maybe to do it for a few years. In all honesty, I don’t know yet what I want to do with my life so it can’t hurt.

I’m trying my best not to think about graduating next June while I’m in Spain (there’s nothing I can do while I’m here). It’s scary because I really don’t know yet what I want to do with my life. This is why I’m not applying to grad school or law school or anything yet – because I don’t know what advanced degree I’m going to want/need. I know I want to get a job and make money and figure stuff out. I don’t know where I want to live though…I suspect where I can get a job will play a big role in this.

Just some stuff that’s been on my mind. No pasa nada. :-)