How it all started

This blog is a way for me to keep in touch with family and friends, so I thought I would begin by telling you the story of my journey to Foreign Service.

Do you remember a time before masks and quarantines? Back then, I was contemplating the shape of my life. I decided I wanted to travel and experience new places and people. Google was my friend as I explored locum tenens (think substitute teacher but in the medical field), Mercy Ships, and Doctors Without Borders. A link popped up for Foreign Service. That link changed my life. Sounds dramatic.

Foreign Service through the US Department of State rang all my bells. It was a chance to live and work abroad in new cultures and with new people. Assignment lengths are roughly 2 years which is about when I start getting restless. So that was perfect. I would get to serve with interesting people in vastly different health settings. I even get to learn and practice tropical medicine (woohoo parasites). The more I learned, the more I liked.

I didn't meet all the qualifications. That was a bummer. I was missing experience in urgent care or emergency medicine. At the last minute I decided to just put in the application and expected it to be turned down. I thought it would give me an idea of the timeline once I did have the qualifications. Surprisingly, I passed the initial evaluation, and my application was sent to a panel to review. I expected it to get rejected but again it passed, and I was invited to oral assessment. Think the most monster interview you have ever had with a panel of reviewers required to remain stone faced. Brutal.

This sounds like a quick road when I type it out. It wasn't. It was 2 years from application submittal at the very end of 2018 to the interview in April of 2021. Two years of COVID. So that was fun. But it was two years that let me transfer to Urgent Care and even apply for, attend, and graduate a post-masters program at Vanderbilt University for Emergency Nurse Practitioner. This not only gave me experience that will help me in the field, but it helped me pass that interview. Seriously. Brutal.

You know, as each stage progressed, I prayed the next stage would come sooner. It was taking SO MUCH TIME. My brother gave me a blessing that told me to be patient. I tried, but my prayers still veered into attempting to convince Heavenly Father that this needed to go faster. What do I know about timing? NOTHING!

After passing the oral assessment, the next stage was obtaining clearances. Medical clearance to make sure I am healthy enough to go anywhere in the world was easy. Security clearance required quite a bit of paperwork and an interview with an investigator. Here is where I learned, yet again, that the LORD knows way more than me. Who knew?

For security clearance I needed to give him names of people that knew me for at least 7 years and they could not be family members. This was kind of a problem because I had been in grad school for my Family Nurse Practitioner prior to coming and hadn't really kept in close contact with anyone. How long ago did I move to La Grande? Exactly 7 years TO THE MONTH of my interview. Really. He had me be very clear about when I started going to church because if I was a few weeks off I never could have gotten clearance. Remember what I said about hurrying the Lord along? I am so very glad he didn't give me what I thought would be best.

Well here we are. I got the offer to join Foreign Service orientation this April and I am prepping for that now. I had no idea how much stuff I accumulated in 7 years. I kind of want to burn my house down so I don't have to deal with it anymore but otherwise things are going smooth. Movers come on the 30th. I will head to my parents for a few days and then leave for DC. Just me and Oakley dog. Off on an adventure. As I started with, this blog is mostly a way to keep in touch. I have no doubt that I will land myself in very awkward situations and I will be sure to share with you all.

Please know that my time in La Grande was wonderful. I will be eternally grateful for the amazing ward I had that helped fellowship me back to full activity. I will always love and admire the amazing young women I was privileged to serve with. I had incredible work colleagues that mentored me and taught me not only medicine but also how to care for patients. I have had several blessings throughout this process and one stands out to me. In a fathers blessing I was told to look fondly back on my time in La Grande and that I made friendships here that would last me into eternity. I know this is true. First Thursday girls, Come Follow Me family, crazy Hawaii ladies, BYU education enthusiasts, even plane crashing friends all make my life better. I will miss you. But you can come visit. Just saying.