The Foreign Service Journal, March 2014

40 MARCH 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL A “TRAILING” SPOUSE? I am a trailing spouse. This isn’t a diagnosis for my own mid-life crisis or some existential metaphor for my relationship status. No, this is what I’m called, thanks to my dear husband’s Foreign Service position. To be more specific and, I suppose, far less incrimi- nating, it’s a term assigned to me by way of my hus- band’s job, if I really had to blame somebody. (But who’s blaming anybody in this career?) Thus, as I haul my worldly belongings from one continent to another, updating my Facebook location status as often as some do their relation- ships, I find myself thrown into the unexpected role of “trailing spouse.” This lifestyle certainly does have its perks. The government goes to great lengths to ensure the stability of our family (and our future family’s) life. Housing is provided, cost-of-living adjustments are accounted for, and luxuries like dishwashers and lawn mowers are supplied to provide some semblance Jessie Bryson has accompanied her husband, Barrett Bryson, who joined the Foreign Service in 2010, to Dar es Salaam by way of Guang- zhou and Washington, D.C. As a writer and photographer, she is active both online and in her local community. She keeps a diary of her obser- vations about overseas life at www.jessbopeep.com . FEATURE A millennial commentator shares her reaction to joining the ranks of the Foreign Service community. BY J ESS I E BRYSON