Happy New Year!!!

Wow, 2022 was a whirlwind of a year. Thinking back on my entire life, I don’t think there has been a single year that had as much excitement and movement as 2022 did.

I entered 2022 working as a hospitalist in Southern New Mexico, my wife had just had our youngest daughter two weeks prior, and I was anxiously awaiting news from the State Department Registrar that I finally made it on said register. The beginning of the month was heralded with an email telling me I still did not have a security clearance, so imagine my surprise on January 12th when in the wee hours of the morning I woke up to an email telling me I made it onto the top 3rd of the Register of Cleared Candidates. At this point in time most the April Class invites had gone out, and I resigned myself to hopefully getting an invite for the July class.

July wasn’t meant to be, as 12 days after I was added to the register, I received an email inviting me to the 210th/164th joint Foreign Service orientation in April 2022. I was sitting at work at about 9AM when the email hit my inbox, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had to slow myself down multiple times to get through it, and then I had to think fast. My previous employer required a 90 day notice before stepping down, and I was staring at 75ish days between the end of January to April. At that point I called my wife, she gave me the important thumbs up, and I marched into my bosses office and gave her the news and my resignation.

Some folks I think dread this moment, but I was very fortunate to have been in a supportive work environment with a great boss, and I had kept her appraised of the situation from the beginning. She also had to be interviewed for my security clearance, so she knew I had applied for the State Department. It was definitely a bitter sweet moment, but she totally understood, was happy for me, and allowed me to leave a bit earlier than my 90 day departure date, to which I am eternally grateful for her kindness and support throughout the process.

From there, it was a flash flood of information and planning. Planning DC housing. Planning my move to DC. Planning the family moving out of our place in Texas. Renting out our Texas house. Telling friends and family. Planning to move to a country without knowing which country that might be. Planning for a huge life change on about 2 months notice. Looking back, I’m not sure how we did it all, but it’s clear none of it would have been possible without my wife Angeli.

Those 2 months were a blur and somehow we got it all done. On April 11th, 2022 I was sworn in as a State Department employee, on May 17th I learned I would be moving to Mauritania, and on July 9th, we arrived to Nouakchott to begin our first tour. Orientation was a blast but now it feels so distant. Where has the time gone? We are knocking on 6 months in Mauritania and it feels like we just arrived. More senior folks will tell you it goes by so fast, and they aren’t joking. I feel like time just melts away here. I’m not sure what the cause is, maybe because I like the job and I always have something on my calendar to look forward to, but so far I have loved my decision to join.

Throughout that time, this blog has also had quite a bit of growth. For the first 6 months of its existence in 2021, this blog had about 1000 total views in that time frame. Somehow, during the last 12 months, it has averaged well over 1000 views per month. Small fries on the internet, but a pretty dramatic growth of a personal blog with no advertising, talking about a very niche profession, job, and lifestyle. 2022 saw 56 blog posts, mostly on a weekly basis, including a handful of guest posts courtesy of my wife Angeli. The most popular post/page continues to be the “What is a Foreign Service Medical Provider?“, followed by the page highlighting My FS Timeline, and in third “Why did I decide to apply for the Foreign Service as a Medical Provider?“. The most popular post is definitely because if you google search “Foreign Service Medical Provider”, my blog is the #2 website listed after the actual State Department job page. Not sure how I made that happen, only the google robots know.

It is also thanks to this blog that I have been able to befriend numerous individuals that found themselves in an “outside looking in” situation like when I started the blog, to now being colleagues embarked on the same adventure. I am really glad that a place I use to dump my thoughts, reflect, and highlight the hiring process and job, has lead to great opportunities to meet like minded individuals. I wouldn’t have fathomed this would have happened when I started, but am grateful this has occurred.

Overall, 2022 was a total blast, and the adventure is just getting started. Here is to a prosperous 2023. Happy New Year!!!! —Nick