A100
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| Diplo-stylin' at the State Department.
September 8th, 2015 is a date that will forever have significance in my life as it was the day I officially started my diplomatic career. It was the culmination of years of hard work and perseverance. Long time readers will know how much and to whom I am indebted to and how I got to this point. Despite the work I put in and the skills I believe I bring to the table, I must confess that I still feel a bit like an imposter in this new field. I feel as though I bought the winning lottery ticket; a "new money" guy in a world of those from generational wealth. That is how I feel in my more self-conscious moments, but I don't necessarily feel like that is a bad thing. I like the feeling this complex produces in me: I feel grateful, I feel fortunate, and I feel like I don't want to squander my opportunities, which makes me work harder. So, all told, I'm in a good place.
Day 1 of Orientation, known as A100, was a bit anti-climactic. While it was great to see my old Pickering cohort-mates and to meet the rest of my new colleagues, the day was otherwise purely administrative. Paperwork on paperwork on paperwork. "Welcome to the government!", was a frequent thought on this day.
The real excitement of week one was getting our bid lists on the third day. I'd been dreaming about this list for years. It would be weeks before I would know which one, but one of the countries on that list would be my new home in the near future. I really enjoyed diving head first into my post research. Despite having an above-average knowledge of world geography, I had no idea where a full third of those places were. Over the next week and a half, Stephanie and I would debate, rank, re-rank and ultimately submit our choices to the will of the gods.
The six weeks of training were a "drinking from a firehose" experience. There is so much to get yourself acclimated to in State Department policy, governmental rules and diplomatic practice, that is hard to not feel like you're drowning a bit. But the training is designed to be introductory, most of the training will be on the job.
The best part of A100 was certainly getting to know my new colleagues. There were 55 of us in our class, the array of backgrounds couldn't have been more diverse. There were former lawyers, former military folks, and those just out of grad school. There were naturalized americans, 1st generation americans, they were young, and the not so young. They came from every region of the country and the wider world. Many speakers would comment on the wonderful diversity in our group as emblematic of America's greatest strength, and I was inclined to agree. These folks represent the most impressive collection of talent I've ever had the pleasure of associating myself with. Over the months together we did happy hours, Octoberfest outings, movies, and brunches together. It is sad to know that, soon, my new friends will literally be scattered to all ends of the Earth, but I will count them as friends forever, and the reunions are going to be epic.
I dreamt of this day for a long time. It was finally here...
The final week of A100 is the big one. It begins with Flag Day on the final day of the 5th week. I was grateful to have such an outpouring of support from my friends and family that day. For our class of 55, we had about 400 people RSVP to come watch our ceremony. Over 5% of those people were there to support me alone, I had 22 people commit to coming. My mom, sister, and my life friends, Bright and Whitney, flew in for the ceremony. In addition, two of my surrogate mom's flew in as well. My homie Nick drove throughout the night from Florida to be there, he even had to endure a detour that forced him to go around South Carolina due to the flooding there. His commitment to be there was emblematic of our relationship and my relationship with all my Florida people. My brother Spencer came through, I also had classmates from AU, old co-workers from the Amex days, and former professors in attendance. Most importantly, however, my wife and kids were there. They would learn their fate in this ceremony as well.
Bringing in the flags. One of these had my name on it...
  We were all balls of nervous energy before we kicked off.  Just because we're diplomats, don't think Lina and I won't take it to the streets! The ceremony was a blur of emotion. Before you had time to settle in your chair they were handing out jobs. Some in our group were very excited by their posting, some not so much. But I was really having a good time high-fiving my colleagues as their names were called and past me in the aisle. I almost forgot that I, too, was going to be given a job at some point. My name wasn't called until late in the process. It was a strange moment because the announcer botched my name... my FIRST name! To his credit, he got "Bisase" right (they asked us to phonetically spell our names for them beforehand), but he called me "John" for some unknown reason. The process of handing out flags was started with the reading of the city, then country, then the job, then the name of the officer assigned there. So, for me, the moment went like this:
Announcer: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic...Consular...John...
My internal monologue: (Oh, guess this isn't me. I wonder which John they're talking about...)
Announcer: ...Bisase
Me: (Huh? Thats my name! I guess I should stand up now...)
 Me going up to get my flag.  "Look, family! Our flag!"
So, I went up and got my flag in a bit of a fog. I hadn't spent a lot of time thinking about the D.R. as a possible landing spot. My research on it was lighter than the other posts (there were over 70 posts to look into, after all) and I had gotten my hopes up for Brazil. Ultimately, although there were 3 Brazil jobs on our list, they didn't give any of them out to our group! I know many people bid those jobs highly. So, why you would put jobs that weren't actually jobs on a bid list is a mystery to me; it just struck me as mean in the end.
It took me a couple of days to sort out my feelings about the posting. After spending the weekend looking over it, I found myself getting excited by the idea. We'll be in a nice tropical locale (this Florida boy HATES the winters here!), we'll be only a few hours from home, and I'll get to top off my Spanish which has gone from middling to poor to "who told you you could speak Spanish?!?" over the years. Those are all huge bonuses.
We finished our celebratory weekend with a meal at Los Hermanos, the best Dominican restaurant in D.C. It lived up to the hype, we'll be back for sure. It was so authentically Dominican, there were even guys playing dominoes in the corner of the restaurant. My buddy, Bright, who lived in the D.R. for a while commented that this place was the real deal, even down to the bootleg cellphone shop attached to the restaurant. That was good enough for me.
  
Big Dominican family meal.
A100 week concluded the following Friday with my swearing in ceremony. The Director General of the Foreign Service came to swear us in, we took a class photo, and that was the end of my orientation. It was a bittersweet day. That was the last time those 55 people will be gathered in the same room ever again. Within a few weeks, some of us will start shipping out to post. I won't go until June of 2016, however. I have a language course from January to June, but the English-speaking jobs (or jobs for which the officers already speak the requisite language) get their folks right away. So, we'll be doing farewell parties for them soon.
The family came to see me sworn in.
 
This is my homie, Sarah. We'll all be working for her soon enough. So, I'm kissin' up early...
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I'm excited to get to work. My work life has quickly turned into a grad student-type life again. I have job training every day, homework to do, papers to write, the whole nine... But before long I'll find myself on the visa line in Santo Domingo deciding who does and does not get to visit the United States. As always, I'll keep you all posted...hasta luego!
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| The Bisase fam is off to Santo Domingo, baby! |
