As a tangent to my previous post, I've also been thinking about what we've given up in service to the U.S.A.
What I think about the most: family and friends. We've missed out on 10+ years worth of hanging out. Chatting, partying, gaming, whatever. Weddings. Holidays. Sure, we cram in a little of it when we can on visits back to the U.S., but it's so little. At least our friends are awesome, and are still our friends.
What I think about next most: the "what if" life. What if we hadn't joined the Foreign Service? Where would we be? What would we be doing? Would we have a house, kids, etc.?
Then there's the sense of having missed the last decade of almost everything in the U.S. -- media, technology, politics, attitudes... it feels like I'm stuck in a snapshot taken in 2003. Yes, the Internet helps keep us more connected, but it's definitely not the same when you have to seek it out to learn about it rather than being surrounded/immersed/inundated with it.
And then comes the feeling of being stuck on this course whether we like it or not. I mean, our prior careers were just starting and I dropped mine entirely with no real connections to make it portable. I've done okay finding jobs overseas (until this assignment), but my "career" is just a hodgepodge of mostly unrelated positions with no continuity. Even D-What, who has had continuity in the sense of being a Foreign Service Officer (though working in different capacities), may be hard pressed to find work back in the States if we decide we're done with the overseas business.
Well. Hoping for a nice place to live (that offers more to do and is a closer approximation of the cushy life back home) for our next assignment, so I don't think so much about what we've given up.
What I think about the most: family and friends. We've missed out on 10+ years worth of hanging out. Chatting, partying, gaming, whatever. Weddings. Holidays. Sure, we cram in a little of it when we can on visits back to the U.S., but it's so little. At least our friends are awesome, and are still our friends.
What I think about next most: the "what if" life. What if we hadn't joined the Foreign Service? Where would we be? What would we be doing? Would we have a house, kids, etc.?
Then there's the sense of having missed the last decade of almost everything in the U.S. -- media, technology, politics, attitudes... it feels like I'm stuck in a snapshot taken in 2003. Yes, the Internet helps keep us more connected, but it's definitely not the same when you have to seek it out to learn about it rather than being surrounded/immersed/inundated with it.
And then comes the feeling of being stuck on this course whether we like it or not. I mean, our prior careers were just starting and I dropped mine entirely with no real connections to make it portable. I've done okay finding jobs overseas (until this assignment), but my "career" is just a hodgepodge of mostly unrelated positions with no continuity. Even D-What, who has had continuity in the sense of being a Foreign Service Officer (though working in different capacities), may be hard pressed to find work back in the States if we decide we're done with the overseas business.
Well. Hoping for a nice place to live (that offers more to do and is a closer approximation of the cushy life back home) for our next assignment, so I don't think so much about what we've given up.
3 comments:
Heres hoping for a winner posting:)
French Polynesia! Thailand! Belize! Mexico! Minneapolis! Some place in Yurop!
Mmm... yurop.
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