The Foreign Service Journal, March 2010

A s I write these words in January, I’ve been thinking a lot about my A-100 class, the 25th, which gathered in Rosslyn exactly 25 years ago this month. The temptation to seek deeper meaning in that milestone only grewwhen I recently calculated that my exit from the Foreign Service in August 1997 occurred almost precisely at the midpoint of what would otherwise have been a 25-year career (so far). But it is the fact that I will turn 50 this summer that makes the urge to re- flect on those first weeks of orientation and training well-nigh irresistible — particularly when one doesn’t resist it! AFSA hosts recruitment lunches for each entering class of generalists and specialists, for which I amgenerally one of the charming and talented table hosts. They’ve usually just had their “flag day” ceremony, so as part of our in- formal discussion before the presenta- tions get under way, I enjoy finding out where the six to eight folks in my group will be heading on their first assign- ment. They are almost always full of en- thusiasm and idealism, qualities I hope they never lose. Sometimes they ask me about my own FS career, which shows that they, too, have absorbed a lesson I picked up during the Foreign Service Institute unit on public speaking: The best way to ingratiate yourself with contacts is to ask them questions about themselves. Still, I notice that many A-100 classes prefer to talk to each other. In fact, if the format for the recruitment lunches allowed table-hopping, I’m sure some of them would do that. In contrast, my own A-100 cohort did not havemuch esprit de corps. Our class motto, probably taken from the 1984 film “The Adventures of Buckeroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension,” was “Wherever you go, there you are.” But at least some of my colleagues followed another adage: “It is not enough for me to succeed. My enemies must fail!” Unlike most other incoming classes, we never had a newsletter, and have only held a couple of reunions. Ad- mittedly, e-mail was still quite exotic in 1985, and of course Facebook and other social networking sites were decades away. But somehow, I don’t think technology was the problem. Disregarding the advice of a vet- eran FSO that “an action transferred is an action completed,” I seriously considered volunteering to produce a newsletter — at least until the holiday season of 1985. That year, to test the idea, I wrote all 51 of my A-100 col- leagues, asking how they were settling into their far-flung posts. I also let them know I’d made it through the massive earthquake that leveled much of Mexico City in September 1985 — during which I was the embassy’s deaths and estates officer. About half of my classmates wrote back that first year, but the number of correspondents fell over the years. So I decided to put my energy into nurturing the close friendships I had made during orientation (two in particular), and else- where in the Foreign Service. Perhaps that is the most important lesson I’ve learned from my A-100 ex- perience. Ultimately, all members of our profession have to look out for themselves as they forge their careers. But if we’re lucky, at least a few treas- ured friends and colleagues will have our backs along the way. Whenever A-100 classes ask me if I regret my decision to leave the Foreign Service relatively early, I assure them that I don’t. Despite some disappoint- ments, I did something that matters , and packed a lot of truly marvelous ex- periences into my 12 years as an FSO. What’s more, it paved the way for me to work for AFSA, which— like joining the Service all those years ago — has proved to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. ■ Steven Alan Honley was a Foreign Service officer from 1985 to 1997, serving in Mexico City, Wellington and Washington, D.C. He has been editor of the Foreign Service Journal since 2001. Instead of struggling to promote esprit de corps, I decided to put that energy into nurturing the close friendships I had made. 84 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 1 0 R EFLECTIONS A-100, Past and Present B Y S TEVEN A LAN H ONLEY