من أمريكا مع الحب

It’s summer which is usually when my blog picks up. There’s always more time to think and to write in the summer apparently. And now I feel like I can share my news that I guess I have been hesitant to talk about, for fear that it might disappear. I know it sounds silly, but I’m still getting adjusted to the fact that, in the end, everything did work out more or less and my life plan, this crazy dream I latched onto at the teeny tiny age of 12, is becoming real. Hello world, I’m a Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellow, Cohort 15.

Getting there was far from easy. I went through my far share of rejection - thank you Columbia, Georgetown, and the Charles B. Rangel Graduate Fellowship Program - but now I’ll be receiving funding for graduate study at New York University (or Tufts, depending on waitlist factors), completing a domestic State Dept internship in DC next summer, and completing an abroad State Dept internship during the summer of 2013. After that, I’ll start my A-100 class and become a Foreign Service Officer for the US Government. I’m even taking the FSOT on June 4th so, fingers crossed, I’ll pass it then and only have to take it once. I’m really, really excited about my 5-Year Plan, although I do kind of feel like a tool for having one.

As for the summer, I’m working to save up some money for big city living and investing in some “me time.” I’m looking to actually create and stick to a work out regimen, brush up on my Arabic and Spanish, and then flirt around a little bit with French and German before I head to Europe in August. I’ll be flying into Munich and then venturing off to the South of France compliments of a free flight I received after completing my internship with Lufthansa. I’m looking forward to a relaxing summer, and I am thankful for everything. Really everything. Graduation was bittersweet but I’m excited for what’s to come. Real life slowly but surely approaching.