The Foreign Service Journal, June 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2021 63 EXCERPT FROM THE DECEMBER 2020 FSJ EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT Leaving Campus Behind BY SEAMUS GORMAN F or me, the beginning of March is when COVID-19 transitioned from a frighten- ing story in the news to an event with profound personal conse- quences… I’m a Foreign Service family member, and the rest of my fam- ily was about 5,000 miles away, in Russia. Because of COVID-19 travel bans, getting back there would be extremely difficult—and I wasn’t even sure whether to make the attempt.… Ultimately, I decided that the worst case, if I got very sick, would be much easier to handle if I were with my family in Moscow. My State Department connection cre- ated a difficult situation because I was separated from my family. But strangely, it also provided a solution: Eventually, through the Operational Medicine program I was able to get on an OpMed flight back to Moscow. And after a 14-day quarantine, during which I did not write this essay as I’d planned, I was finally reunited with my family... My situation isn’t easy—I’m away from close friends and had to put my college career on hold. But I realize I am also extremely fortunate to have the opportuni- ties that being connected to the State Department has given me. I’m living in my parents’ base- ment, yes, but it’s a pretty inter- esting place to be. Seamus Gorman is a Foreign Service family member who has lived in Moscow, Yerevan, Almaty, Beijing, Amman and Northern Virginia. He is currently a junior at James Madison University.