The Story

The Society of American Archivists conference is next week in DC. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it will be great to see my colleagues again and present my poster with so many of my students. On the other hand, I am DREADING the alumni reception. I know everyone will be asking me "so...what are you up to now?" It's been a few months since President Obama spoke at graduation. Truthfully? Not much. Waiting. Learning how to surrender.

Now for some reminiscing...
I passed my OA nearly one year ago on August 6, 2009. I flew down to DC alone and stayed in the State Plaza hotel. I was a nervous wreck, but very excited. Of course I couldn't sleep. I can never sleep before interviews - it didn't help that the clock radio went off at midnight and scared me half to death! That Thursday morning, I paced my hotel room for hours. My OA wasn't until noon so I had a lot of time to kill. I called my parents and tried to breathe deeply. Once I got to Annex 1 after a nutritious Starbuck's breakfast, I walked right up to an older gentleman and asked if he was there for the OA. Yes, but not for my specialty. We chatted and that took the edge off. It was only the two of us and we were both nervous. The actual OA was great. Although my name tag kept falling off and distracting me, I enjoyed the experience and genuinely liked the individuals interviewing me. When they called me back in, they were smiling and more relaxed. They told me I passed, gave me my score and paused. I implored myself to enjoy the moment because it felt so good. I had a feeling it wouldn't last. Within minutes, they began to outline the details of the conditional offer and what had felt joyful became somber. So many IFs and I thought I had already done most of the hard work. Little did I know that stamina was required by the truck loads!

On my way back to the hotel after being fingerprinted, I would not let myself bask in the excitement of passing. I kept replaying some of my responses in my head and reviewing every minute detail. This lasted a few days but finally subsided (thank God!) At the airport over a beer I opened the yellow envelope and began reading through all the forms. Yikes! I had to get started on the medical clearance and fast if we were going to submit everything within 30 days. We had plans to travel abroad to see my parents in just 10 days and I had to present a paper at the Society of American Archivists conference in Austin the following week.

Needless to say, I got started on the medical exams quickly. The day after my OA, back in Michigan with very little sleep, I dragged my unsuspecting toddler (sporting his brand new orange Washington, DC t-shirt) to his doctor to begin the medical exams. I must have seemed frazzled and they had plenty of questions. That day we also ran over to the hospital for blood work and a chest x-ray. Luckily my son charmed all the nurses and technicians and came home with an armful of stickers. That made me feel less guilty. My husband and I scrambled to get our tests completed over the next week and made it, although I scanned the final papers within hours of leaving for our international flight.

My security clearance process began sometime in early September. I received a few emails here and there with items I needed to clarify, but did not officially hear from my investigator until late in the month. His call surprised me because it was before 8am on a weekday. Yes, I was available to meet with him, gladly. How exciting! This was starting to feel more official. That weekend we went to Toronto for a mini vacation and while at the zoo, he called again. It made me feel important, but a little unnerved. The experience of interviewing with my investigator was very positive overall. However, for the two or so weeks that I was aware of it, I felt a little paranoid (like that 80s song about somebody's watching me) and wondered what the neighbors thought of all this. At school, people informed me that they had met my investigator, but did not go into details. It seemed like he had talked to everyone! After that, I didn't hear anything for a long time.

In November 2009, my husband took the OA and passed. It was a very exciting time, but I was so caught up in finalizing my dissertation that I did not think about it too much. His security clearance process began in December and we went through the whole thing again...now really, what must our neighbors think? I decided to look into taking the telephone language test for Romanian. I had let the ball drop on that one because I had sent an email query back in August and never heard back. When I sent another query late in the fall, I was told that I had been scheduled for some time in late August when I had been out of the country. It was news to me and I had to be very nice to the scheduler who thankfully let me reschedule the test for sometime in January.

In early January I took the language test and was sure that I had failed it because it ended abruptly. I gave a practice talk of my dissertation defense which bombed and left me terrified, but also helped me to nail it on the 25th. So glad to have that behind me, I found out in February that I did pass the language test!

More time passed and I did not hear anything. My colleagues asked me about my job search. I told them I was stuck somewhere in security clearance limbo. They laughed and secretly wondered about my past. In March while attending the Web Wise conference in Denver, I received a call that woke me up at 6:30 am. "Are you still interested in the Foreign Service position?" "Yes, yes, absolutely" was my groggy reply. I was informed that my security clearance process was nearing its end and I would hear from them shortly. This was the news I had been waiting for!

Except, months passed and I was still not granted clearance. My husband, on the other hand, breezed through the process in less than two months!

Finally, on June 22, 2010, I was placed on the register and was able to call for my ranking and information on future hiring. Although we celebrated this occasion and it felt real, we are still waiting and dreaming about our Foreign Service life. Meanwhile, our landlords want to know what the heck is up (are we leaving? When?); my son's home daycare owner would like to know how much longer he will be going there; I planned a crazy month-long trip to my parents for me and my son; and I have no idea what the future holds.

So that's the gist of it...