Foreign Service

Now that Kevin is done with law school, everyone's question for him is, "So, in what area of law do you want to practice?"

There is no short answer. Well, there's no TRUE short answer.

Right now he's working as a court clerk for one of the judges here in Boise. He's learning a lot and says that it feels like the first year of law school all over again-- tons of work and a HUGE learning curve. I know it's hard to deal with a job that's so challenging, but I also know that challenging usually means rewarding by the end of the day (or week, or month). I'd much rather have a challenging-but-rewarding job than a boring and fruitless job.

So that's the job for this year.

Next year is in the air. Should he stay in law, he wants to be a litigator for a while. I guess those are the guys who actually go to court and argue for their clients. He had been talking about being a prosecutor or defense attorney, but this is all Plan B.

Plan A is to join the Foreign Service!

The Foreign Service Exam is in October, and it's basically like a game of Jeopardy, minus Alec Trebek and the money. There is a lot of random stuff they test your knowledge of, and it's very competitive. Only a small percentage of the test applicants move on to the next level of interviews. Thankfully, though, Kevin is one smart dude, and he has a lot of knowledge. It should come in handy. I think he may pass.

If he passes the test and then the interviews, we would be moving to Washington D.C. next year for a year or so of training. Then after that he will get sent to work in an Embassy somewhere in the world. Every three years you get transferred somewhere else.

When we were living in Beijing, about half our ward was working for an Embassy. And they were some of the most amazing, friendly, well-educated, and family-centric people I've ever met. Now, I realize that you can be all those things WITHOUT working in the Foreign Service, but I loved the idea of it. Your family moves around a lot, and so while your friends and neighbors are important (and you have to really be outgoing and proactive about meeting them!), the one true constant in your life is your family. I saw brothers and sisters who were friends with each other, and that is something I would love to have in my family. And these kids got to experience the world. We'd have discussions in Young Women's class at church, and one of the 13-year-olds would say, "Well yes, and while we were in Vietnam, we got to....While here in China...." It was pretty amazing.

And above all else, it sound so cool! So exciting! So exotic!

But now that reality is setting in and I realize that within a year I could be living in Washington D.C. preparing for a lifetime of jet-lag, I'm starting to get nervous. It's not the bad-feeling, I-shouldn't-be-doing-this sort of nervous. It's more like the "so much for ever having a backyard garden" type of nervous. It's the "what if they send us to somewhere that has lead poisoning, racist people, or violence?" type of nervous. It's the "I grew up in a small town and went to high school with 95% of my presechool class, I never moved, and I loved every bit of it" type of feeling, knowing that my kids will not have that. They won't have a "hometown."

And the saddest realization: I won't be able to bring my grand piano as I tootle around the world.

It's daunting.

It's scary.

It's intimidating.

I'm so excited!