The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2016

74 JULY-AUGUST 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL My Retirement Bucket List BY GENE SCHM I E L D uring the retirement seminar, I made a list of desirable activities that I thought were “doable.” I’ve crossed many of them off my bucket list: 1. Acting: I’ve been in several community theater plays, including “Twelve Angry Men” and “Judgment at Nuremberg,” and have also directed productions. 2. Writing and speaking: I completed Citizen-General: Jacob Dolson Cox and the Civil War Era , a biography of the Civil War figure that was published by Ohio University Press in 2014. Since then, I have spoken to several Civil War groups around the country about the book and related topics. 3. Sports: I joined the golf club and made a “bucket list” golf trip with my son to St. Andrews in Scotland and the British Open. 4. Travel: My wife, Kathryn, and I take at least one major trip a year, most recently to Tuscany and the Baltic nations. 5. Work: In addition to being a WAE in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs for 12 years, I taught foreign policy at a college internship program in Washington, D.C., for 10 years. 6. AFSA: I have worked with the AFSA-PAC team and as a judge for the High School Essay Contest. 7. Family: Most important of all, retirement allows us time to spend with our family, including our five grandsons, all living nearby. Gene Schmiel was an FSO from 1973 to 1996, serving in Stockholm, Durban, Djibouti (where he was chargé d’affaires), Mombasa (where he was principal officer), Reykjavík and Washington, D.C. He currently works as a re-employed annuitant in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. Going “NOVA!” BY ROBERT AL L EN POWERS N ot having a new assignment to look forward to can make retirement unsettling for some FSOs. But whether they appear by serendipity, as in my case, or from diligent search- ing, opportunities abound. My advice would be to think about what you’d like to do well before your retirement is at hand. After 25 years in the Foreign Service, I retired on Jan. 4, 1995. Although I was anticipating a more tranquil lifestyle, retire- ment turned out to be far busier than I’d anticipated. Just a week or two later a longtime friend who knew of my interest in technology called to ask if I’d join him in meeting some friends who wanted to create an Internet service provider site. Several days later I met Jim Southworth, a primary sponsor of the idea, Top: Gene Schmiel, in red, talks to fellow inmates of the asylum in a scene from the Fauquier Community Theater’ s production of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Below: Gene Schmiel shakes hands with Ed Bearss, a renowned Civil War historian, in front of the Carter House, Jacob Cox’s headquarters during the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee. COURTESYOFGENESCHMIEL