The Foreign Service Journal, December 2004

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 93 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT tional experience. For Guled, who attended high school in Jamaica and India, it was important that he was allowed to finish the school year at the same institution (some kids were yanked out in mid-year). And his father facilitated the acclimatization process by introducing him to his co- workers’ children before school start- ed. Most respondents’ parents had the usual parental advice on careers, while some steered their children toward or away from certain careers, perhaps depending on how they saw their own experiences. Certain careers are more transfer- able than others, but for some parents it was mainly about job security, know- ing that in an ever-changing world, one’s job can be an anchor. One child was steered toward careers where one could more readily find work— bank- ing, finance, international organizations — and away from the things she loved: English literature, writing, anthropolo- gy, sociology and philosophy. This resulted in her feeling a dichotomy between her interests and her skills. Now she feels like “a split personality with no real expertise.” Others re- ceived simpler advice: “My dad warn- ed me against working at Japanese companies and my mom warned me against being a homemaker.” Wanderlust Most of the international kids I talk to, now in their 20s, 30s and 40s, still don’t know what they want to do when they “grow up.” I wonder if this, like my own furniture-moving mania, is part of the wanderlust that was planted in us as children. Most of them do have successful jobs of the type you would expect internationally raised people to have: World Bank analysts, IMF officials, international development program managers, IT specialists, teachers of English as a foreign language, lawyers and immi- gration lawyers, and writers. One FS child, now a journalism student, says that she has noticed that many Foreign Service kids become writers. My personal theory for this (and also for why so many FS folks write books), is that an international/global life forces one to analyze, assimilate, accept, understand, and work and communicate with foreign concepts, people and ways. These are valuable skills and make for attractive employ- ees — just don’t expect them to stay put for 30 years. Ironically, a Foreign Service career can pose a particular obstacle for the internationally raised kid. These young people have often lived less than half their lives in their passport country. I have a friend who spent years studying about the U.S. so that Continued from page 91 Continued on page 95