- 5 days ago
Ever wondered what it's really like to climb from a broke college intern to the top of American foreign policy?
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VIDEO TOPICS/TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 The Intern
2:13 The Candidate
4:13 The Junior Officer
6:50 The Second-Tour Officer
9:48 The Mid-Career Officer
12:13 The Deputy Chief Of Mission
14:45 The Ambassador
18:01 The Assistant Secretary
20:18 The Under Secretary
23:06 The Elder Statesman
☕ Support the channel & suggest my next video idea: https://ko-fi.com/masterpov
VIDEO TOPICS/TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 The Intern
2:13 The Candidate
4:13 The Junior Officer
6:50 The Second-Tour Officer
9:48 The Mid-Career Officer
12:13 The Deputy Chief Of Mission
14:45 The Ambassador
18:01 The Assistant Secretary
20:18 The Under Secretary
23:06 The Elder Statesman
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Level 1. The Intern
00:02You are 20 years old.
00:04You are a junior at a state university that your parents cannot really afford.
00:08You applied to the State Department's summer internship program on a whim.
00:12A professor mentioned it during office hours.
00:15Six months later, an email arrived.
00:17You had been accepted.
00:19You had never been on an airplane until the flight to Washington.
00:23Your suitcase contains two suits from a discount store.
00:26It also holds three dress shirts and a pair of leather shoes that already hurt your feet.
00:31You find an apartment in Arlington with three other interns.
00:35You sleep on an air mattress.
00:37You commute into Foggy Bottom every morning on the metro.
00:40The State Department building is enormous.
00:43It is also intimidating.
00:45You pass through security every day and you still feel like someone is about to stop you.
00:50You wait for the moment someone asks what you are doing there.
00:53Your desk is in a windowless office in a back hallway.
00:57Your job is mostly filing and data entry.
01:00You draft routine correspondence that nobody will read.
01:04You photocopy briefing memos.
01:06You fetch coffee for a deputy assistant secretary who barely looks at you.
01:10You attend meetings where you are told not to speak.
01:13You listen to career foreign service officers argue about policy.
01:17They use a vocabulary and a shorthand that you don't understand yet.
01:21They talk about demarches and cables and chief of mission authority.
01:25They talk about the interagency process.
01:28You write everything down in a notebook.
01:31You look it up later.
01:32You start to piece together how things work.
01:35By the end of the summer, you have learned something important.
01:39Almost nothing that matters happens in public.
01:42The real decisions happen in small rooms.
01:45They happen over coffee, between people who have known each other for decades.
01:49You don't belong to that world.
01:51But you want to.
01:53On your last day, a woman in the political bureau pulls you aside.
01:57She tells you to take the foreign service exam.
02:00She tells you the world needs more people who listen.
02:03You nod.
02:04You write it on a sticky note.
02:06You put the sticky note on your bathroom mirror when you get home.
02:09You look at it every morning for the next two years.
02:13Level 2.
02:14The Candidate
02:15You take the test in a basement testing center in your college town.
02:19It lasts three hours.
02:21The questions span American history, world geography, economics, management theory,
02:27situational judgment, and cultural awareness.
02:29You answer questions about how to handle a consular officer who is falsifying visa records.
02:35You answer questions about the mechanics of treaty ratification.
02:39You walk out feeling like you failed.
02:41Three weeks later, you find out you passed.
02:44Then come the personal narratives.
02:46You write essays about your leadership experience.
02:49You write about your problem-solving abilities.
02:51You write about your cross-cultural skills.
02:54You revise each one 15 times.
02:57You submit.
02:58You wait.
02:59A panel of retired officers reads your essays.
03:02They decide whether you are worth a closer look.
03:05You make it to the oral assessment.
03:07You fly back to Washington.
03:09This time, the hotel is nicer because the State Department is paying for it.
03:13The assessment is an all-day gauntlet.
03:16One exercise is a group negotiation over a fictional aid budget.
03:20Another is a case management task with a stack of documents.
03:23A structured interview follows.
03:26Three assessors ask you questions designed to reveal how you think under pressure.
03:31You finish exhausted.
03:33A week later, you get the call.
03:35You passed.
03:36Your name goes on to the register.
03:38Then you wait again.
03:40The register ranks candidates by score.
03:43The State Department hires from the top down.
03:45You chose political officer because it sounded like what diplomats do.
03:49You wait nine months.
03:51You work two part-time jobs.
03:53You eat ramen.
03:55You almost give up.
03:56Then the email comes.
03:58Report to the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington in six weeks.
04:02You are joining the next A100 class.
04:05You quit your jobs the same day.
04:07You call your mother.
04:08She cries.
04:09You cry too, but you hide it from her.
04:13Level 3.
04:14The Junior Officer.
04:15The Foreign Service Institute looks like a suburban corporate campus.
04:19You are one of 85 new officers in your class.
04:22They come from everywhere.
04:23A Marine veteran sits next to you.
04:26A former Peace Corps volunteer sits behind you.
04:28A woman who is running a non-profit in Guatemala sits across the room.
04:32A man who spent 10 years in investment banking wanted out.
04:36He is starting over at 38.
04:39The training lasts six weeks.
04:41You learn the mechanics of diplomacy.
04:43You learn how to write a cable.
04:45You learn how to draft a DeMarche.
04:47You learn how to read a classified document and summarize it for someone who has no time
04:51to read the original.
04:53You learn about consular affairs even though you are a political officer.
04:56Everyone serves a consular tour.
04:59You learn about security.
05:00You learn how to recognize surveillance.
05:03You learn what to do if you are approached by a foreign intelligence officer.
05:06You learn how to destroy classified material in an emergency.
05:11On the last day, you receive your first assignment, a consular post in a mid-sized embassy in South
05:16America.
05:17You speak no Spanish.
05:19You have six months of language training ahead of you.
05:22You are 25 years old.
05:25You arrive in country on a Tuesday in September.
05:28The embassy car picks you up at the airport.
05:31The driver has worked at the embassy for 30 years.
05:33He has seen a hundred junior officers come and go.
05:37Your apartment is in a gated compound with other American diplomats.
05:41You unpack your two suitcases.
05:44You stand on the balcony and look out at a city you have never seen before.
05:48You feel something you cannot quite name.
05:51It is not excitement exactly.
05:53It is more like the feeling of stepping off a cliff.
05:56Your first day at work is consular duty.
05:59You sit in a booth behind bulletproof glass.
06:02You interview 80 visa applicants in eight hours.
06:05Each interview lasts two minutes.
06:08You must decide whether this person is telling the truth.
06:11Most of them are.
06:13Some of them are not.
06:15You approve.
06:16You deny.
06:17Applicants cry.
06:19Applicants beg.
06:21Applicants threaten.
06:22You learn to keep your face neutral.
06:25You learn that no is a complete sentence.
06:28You go home and drink a beer on your balcony.
06:31You try not to think about the woman who cried.
06:34She wanted to see her dying mother in Miami.
06:37You denied her.
06:38She did not meet the criteria.
06:40You followed the rules.
06:42That is your job.
06:44You go to sleep.
06:45You do it again the next day.
06:47You do it for two years.
06:49Level four.
06:51The second tour officer.
06:52Your second assignment is a political officer slot at a medium-sized embassy in Eastern Europe.
06:58This is what you join for.
07:00You arrive speaking passable local language after another six months at the Institute.
07:05Your Russian is rough.
07:07Your accent gives you away.
07:09But you can read a newspaper.
07:10You can follow a conversation.
07:12You can conduct a basic meeting without an interpreter.
07:15That is enough to start.
07:17Your portfolio covers internal politics.
07:20You track the ruling party.
07:22You track the opposition.
07:23You track the civil society groups that are trying to hold the government accountable.
07:28You meet with journalists.
07:29You meet with activists.
07:31You meet with academics.
07:32You meet with opposition politicians.
07:35You drink coffee in cafes with people whose phones are probably tapped.
07:40You drink vodka in restaurants with officials who are trying to figure out how much you know.
07:45They're trying to figure out how much they can tell you.
07:49You learn the craft.
07:51Everyone in your job has sources.
07:54Sources are people who know things.
07:56They're willing to tell you what they know.
07:59Some sources give you information because they trust you.
08:02Some give you information because they want something from your government.
08:06Some give you information because they have a grudge against someone else.
08:11You learn to evaluate what you are told.
08:13You learn that people lie for a thousand different reasons.
08:17You learn that sometimes the most valuable information comes from what people avoid saying.
08:23You write cables every week.
08:25A cable is a report.
08:27It goes to Washington through the embassy's secure systems.
08:30It gets read by analysts at the State Department.
08:33It gets read by staff at the National Security Council.
08:36Sometimes it gets read by people at the CIA and the Pentagon.
08:41Your cables shape how American policymakers understand the country.
08:45You take that responsibility seriously.
08:48You check your facts twice.
08:50You attribute everything carefully.
08:53You avoid speculation unless you flag it as speculation.
08:57The ambassador notices.
08:59The deputy chief of mission notices.
09:01You get good reviews.
09:03You get promoted.
09:04You feel something like pride.
09:07You try not to let it show.
09:09You recruit your first real source.
09:12He is a mid-level official in the Interior Ministry.
09:15He is frustrated with his own government.
09:18He sees you as someone who might help him make sense of what is happening.
09:22You meet him in a park on Sunday afternoons.
09:25You never take notes during the meetings.
09:27You write the cable the moment you get back to the embassy.
09:31His information turns out to be accurate.
09:34Washington flags one of your cables for the president's daily brief.
09:39You are too nervous to tell anyone.
09:41You tell your wife that night.
09:43She hugs you and says she always knew you would be good at this.
09:48Level 5.
09:49The mid-career officer.
09:51You are 34 years old.
09:53You have served three tours in three countries.
09:56You have been married for four years to another foreign service officer.
09:59You met her at the Institute.
10:01She is smart and funny.
10:03She understands what this life costs because she is paying the same price.
10:08You are now a political section chief at an embassy in the Middle East.
10:12The assignment came with a promotion.
10:14You supervise four officers.
10:16You set their priorities.
10:18You review their cables before they go out.
10:20You manage their relationships with the deputy chief of mission and the ambassador.
10:24You also have your own portfolio.
10:27You cover the relationship between the host government and regional neighbors.
10:30It is a complicated portfolio.
10:33The country you are posted to has a war going on across its southern border.
10:38It has a tense standoff with a country to its east.
10:41It has an aging monarch whose succession is unclear.
10:45Every week brings a new crisis.
10:48You work 12 hours a day.
10:50You go to meetings at the foreign ministry.
10:52You go to meetings at the defense ministry.
10:54You go to receptions at other embassies where the real conversations happen in quiet corners.
10:59They never happen near the canapes.
11:03You write analytical cables that try to explain a very complicated place to people in Washington.
11:08Most of them have never been there.
11:10You also manage people.
11:12This turns out to be harder than the analysis.
11:16One of your officers is brilliant but disorganized.
11:19One is hardworking but not very sharp.
11:21One is a rising star who is being recruited for better jobs already.
11:25One is older than you and resents having to report to you.
11:29You have to get work out of all of them.
11:32You have to write their performance evaluations.
11:35You have to mediate their disputes.
11:37You have to protect them from bad decisions by the front office.
11:40You also have to get them to do things they don't want to do.
11:44You learn something that nobody teaches at the institute.
11:48Diplomacy inside an embassy is harder than diplomacy outside it.
11:52You are a translator between Washington and the host country.
11:56You are also a translator between your own staff and your own front office.
12:02The exhaustion is cumulative.
12:04You start to forget what you said in which meeting.
12:07You start keeping meticulous notes.
12:10You stop trusting your memory.
12:12Level 6.
12:14The Deputy Chief of Mission
12:15You got the promotion you were hoping for.
12:18Deputy Chief of Mission at a small embassy in Southeast Asia.
12:22The ambassador is a political appointee.
12:25He is a donor from the president's campaign.
12:28He has never served overseas before.
12:30He is enthusiastic and decent and completely out of his depth.
12:34Your job is to actually run the embassy.
12:37You manage a staff of 200.
12:39That number includes Americans and locally employed staff together.
12:43You manage a budget of $40 million.
12:46You coordinate the work of the political section.
12:49You coordinate the economic section.
12:51You coordinate the consular section.
12:53You coordinate the management section.
12:56You coordinate the public affairs section.
12:58You coordinate the regional security office.
13:01You coordinate a dozen other federal agencies that have personnel at the post.
13:06Commerce, agriculture, justice, defense.
13:10Everyone has their own priorities.
13:12Your job is to make them work together.
13:15You are also the face of the mission when the ambassador cannot be.
13:19You attend ceremonies.
13:20You give speeches.
13:22You meet with officials.
13:23You host dinners at the residence.
13:26Your wife hosts with you.
13:28She has put her own career on hold for this tour.
13:31The post did not have a position for her.
13:33That is part of the deal.
13:35The deal is not equal.
13:37The deal never was.
13:38You deal with crises constantly.
13:41An American citizen is arrested for drug possession.
13:44The embassy must visit them in jail within 24 hours.
13:48You coordinate the consular visit.
13:50You deal with the family calling from Ohio in tears.
13:53A typhoon hits a coastal region.
13:55You organize the embassy's disaster response.
13:58You deal with Washington wanting hourly updates.
14:01A local journalist publishes an investigation that embarrasses the host government.
14:34The host government summons you to complain.
14:35But she misses her own career.
14:39She misses her own sense of purpose.
14:42You both know this.
14:43You both pretend you don't.
14:45Level 7.
14:46The ambassador.
14:47The call comes on a Tuesday afternoon.
14:50The White House has nominated you to be ambassador to a small country in Africa.
14:56You did not expect it.
14:58Career ambassadors are a minority in the foreign service.
15:01Most ambassadorships go to political appointees.
15:04But the country in question is difficult.
15:07There is an active insurgency in the north.
15:09The previous ambassador had to evacuate twice in two years.
15:14Washington wanted a career officer who knew the region.
15:17You had the right experience.
15:20The Senate confirmation hearing is less painful than you feared.
15:23A few senators ask questions.
15:25You answer them carefully.
15:27You are confirmed by voice vote.
15:29A month later, you present your credentials to the president of the country.
15:34The ceremony has not changed much in 60 years.
15:37You wear a dark suit.
15:39You carry the leather folder containing your letter of credence.
15:42You bow slightly.
15:44You shake hands.
15:46You are now the personal representative of the president of the United States.
15:50You represent him to this sovereign nation.
15:53You run the embassy.
15:55You have chief of mission authority
15:57over every American government employee in the country.
16:00You answer directly to the secretary of state.
16:04In theory, you answer to the president himself.
16:08Your driver is also your security.
16:10Your residence is also your workplace.
16:13Your spouse is also your partner in the mission.
16:16There is no off-duty.
16:18You meet with the host country president every few months.
16:21You meet with his ministers weekly.
16:24You meet with civil society leaders.
16:26You meet with humanitarian groups working in the north.
16:30You meet with American business executives looking for opportunities.
16:34You meet with missionaries who have been here for 30 years.
16:38They know the country better than anyone.
16:40You give speeches.
16:42Every speech is vetted by Washington.
16:45Every public statement reflects on the United States.
16:48You cannot have a personal opinion anymore.
16:51You are the opinion of your country.
16:53When the insurgency escalates and takes a regional capital,
16:58you coordinate the embassy's response.
17:01You order a partial evacuation of non-essential personnel.
17:04You stay.
17:05You write cables every night by lamplight
17:08because the power keeps cutting out.
17:10You do not sleep.
17:12An American aid worker is kidnapped in the north.
17:15You spend three weeks coordinating with the FBI,
17:19the Pentagon,
17:19and the host government to get her back.
17:21You get her back.
17:23You do not get to celebrate.
17:25You move on to the next crisis.
17:28A senator visits for three days.
17:30You host him at the residence.
17:32You take him to meetings with the president and the foreign minister.
17:36He asks good questions.
17:38He listens carefully.
17:39You realize that some politicians actually do the work.
17:44You were not sure about that before.
17:46You also realize that he will go home
17:49and vote against the foreign aid package
17:52that funds your mission.
17:54Politics is its own country.
17:57You have diplomatic credentials there,
17:59but no vote.
18:01Level 8.
18:02The Assistant Secretary.
18:03You rotated back to Washington after your ambassadorship.
18:07You were promoted to the Senior Foreign Service.
18:09Then the new administration came in.
18:12You were tapped to serve as Assistant Secretary of State
18:14for a regional bureau.
18:16You run the bureau that covers 40 countries.
18:19You manage 1,500 employees worldwide.
18:22You oversee a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars.
18:26You brief the Secretary of State every week.
18:28You brief the Deputy Secretary more often.
18:31You attend interagency meetings at the White House.
18:34Your counterparts come from the Pentagon,
18:36the CIA,
18:37the National Security Council,
18:39the Treasury,
18:40and USAID.
18:41You are in the room where it happens.
18:44The phrase is overused.
18:46It is also accurate.
18:48You sit at tables where decisions are made
18:50that will affect millions of lives.
18:52Most Americans could not find these places on a map.
18:55You recommend policy.
18:57You implement policy.
18:58You defend policy.
19:00You testify before congressional committees.
19:03Senators and representatives ask you questions
19:05that range from genuinely thoughtful
19:07to completely uninformed.
19:09You answer all of them
19:11with the same careful neutrality.
19:13You have learned that anything you say in public
19:15can be used against the administration.
19:17You have learned the most valuable skill in Washington.
19:20It is saying something that means nothing
19:22in a way that sounds like it means something.
19:25You wrestle with the moral weight of the work.
19:28Your bureau has a relationship with a country
19:30whose government is doing terrible things.
19:32Your bureau has diplomatic engagement
19:35with a leader who has ordered assassinations.
19:37Your bureau supports a policy
19:39that you think, privately, is wrong.
19:43You raise your concerns internally.
19:45Sometimes you are heard.
19:47Usually, you are not.
19:48You have a choice.
19:50You can resign and protest.
19:52Or you can stay
19:53and try to shape the policy from inside.
19:55You stay.
19:57That is the choice you keep making.
19:59You are not sure anymore
20:01whether it is the right one.
20:03You come home late.
20:04Your wife is already asleep.
20:06You sit at the kitchen table and eat leftovers.
20:09You read the overnight cables on your secure tablet.
20:11You go to bed at 1 a.m.
20:13You are up again at 5.30.
20:15The cycle repeats.
20:17Level 9.
20:19The Undersecretary
20:20You have been promoted to Undersecretary of State
20:23for Political Affairs.
20:24You are one of the six undersecretaries
20:26who sit at the top of the State Department.
20:28You report directly to the Secretary
20:30and Deputy Secretary.
20:32You are a career officer in a building
20:34where most of the top jobs
20:36go to political appointees.
20:38That is rare.
20:39That is a distinction.
20:41Your portfolio covers every bureau
20:43that handles bilateral relationships
20:45with foreign countries.
20:46The assistant secretaries for each region
20:49report to you.
20:50You coordinate their work.
20:51You mediate their disputes.
20:53You set the priorities
20:54that shape American foreign policy
20:56across six continents.
20:58You spend your days in meetings.
21:00You spend your evenings
21:02reading briefing books.
21:03You travel constantly.
21:05A crisis in one region
21:06pulls you onto a plane.
21:08A negotiation in another region
21:10pulls you onto another plane.
21:12You have been in 14 countries
21:13in the last six months.
21:15You barely know what city you are in
21:17when you wake up.
21:18Your wife retired from the Foreign Service
21:20three years ago.
21:21She runs a small consulting practice now.
21:24She is home more than you are.
21:26Your children are in college.
21:28You missed a lot of their childhood.
21:30You try not to think about that too much.
21:32It doesn't change anything.
21:34You represent the United States
21:35at the United Nations General Assembly.
21:38You sit in bilateral meetings
21:39with foreign ministers.
21:41Some of these countries matter.
21:43Some of them don't.
21:44You are part of the team
21:46negotiating a nuclear agreement
21:47with a hostile power.
21:49The negotiations drag on
21:50for 18 months.
21:52You spend weeks at a time
21:53in hotel conference rooms
21:55in Geneva and Vienna.
21:56You eat bad hotel food.
21:58You lose your temper occasionally.
22:00You apologize.
22:02You keep negotiating.
22:03You care about the work
22:04in a way that is hard to explain.
22:06You have been doing this
22:07for 30 years.
22:09You still believe that talking
22:10is better than not talking.
22:12You still believe that
22:13understanding your adversary
22:15is the first step
22:16to managing your adversary.
22:18You believe these things
22:19even when the evidence is mixed.
22:21You brief the president
22:22in the Oval Office.
22:23He listens.
22:25He asks good questions.
22:26He sometimes takes your advice.
22:28He sometimes does not.
22:30You leave the meeting
22:31and go back to your office.
22:33You write up the decision memo.
22:35The machine keeps moving.
22:37You keep feeding it.
22:38You lose a colleague that year.
22:40He was an ambassador
22:41in a country
22:42where something went wrong.
22:43The official story
22:44is a heart attack.
22:45You have reasons
22:46to doubt the official story.
22:48You do not share
22:49those reasons with anyone.
22:50You attend the funeral
22:52at Arlington.
22:53You speak at the service.
22:54You say what you are
22:55supposed to say.
22:56You do not say
22:57what you are thinking.
22:59His widow hugs you
23:00at the reception.
23:01She whispers
23:01thank you
23:02into your ear.
23:04You are not sure
23:04what she is thanking you for.
23:07Level 10.
23:07The Elder Statesman.
23:09You retired six years ago.
23:11The secretary gave a speech
23:13at your farewell.
23:14Colleagues you had worked with
23:15for decades
23:16stood up and told stories.
23:18Some of the stories
23:19were true.
23:20Some were improved
23:21for the occasion.
23:22You were moved
23:23in a way you did not expect.
23:24You went home that night.
23:26You sat in your living room.
23:28You felt the weight
23:29of 35 years
23:30lift off your shoulders
23:31for the first time.
23:33You did not know
23:34what to do with yourself.
23:35The first months
23:36were strange.
23:37You had worked
23:3812-hour days
23:39since you were 25 years old.
23:41Now you had no meetings.
23:42No cables.
23:44No crises
23:45landing in your inbox
23:46at 3 a.m.
23:46You wandered
23:48around the house.
23:49You annoyed your wife.
23:50You took up gardening
23:52badly.
23:53Then the calls
23:55started coming.
23:56A university
23:57wanted you to teach
23:57a seminar
23:58on American foreign policy.
24:00A think tank
24:00wanted you
24:01on their board
24:01of directors.
24:02A foundation
24:03wanted you
24:04to chair a commission
24:05on the future
24:05of diplomatic training.
24:07A former colleague
24:08wanted your name
24:09on an open letter
24:10to the current secretary.
24:11You said yes
24:12to some.
24:13You said no
24:14to others.
24:15You learned to say no
24:17more often
24:17as the years went on.
24:19You write now.
24:20You published a memoir
24:21that was well received
24:22in the foreign policy community.
24:24You publish essays
24:25in journals
24:26that almost nobody reads
24:27outside the field.
24:29You appear on panels
24:30at foreign policy conferences.
24:32You mentor young officers
24:34quietly.
24:35They come to your house
24:36for dinner
24:37and ask you questions.
24:38You try to answer honestly.
24:41Honesty is a luxury
24:42you could not afford
24:43when you were in the arena.
24:44You watch the world
24:45from a different angle now.
24:47You see things
24:48you could not see
24:49when you were inside the machine.
24:51You see how much
24:52of what you did mattered.
24:54You also see
24:55how much of it did not.
24:57Some of the agreements
24:58you negotiated
24:59still hold.
25:00Some have been torn up
25:01by successors
25:02who did not understand
25:03what they were breaking.
25:05Some of the relationships
25:06you built
25:06still function.
25:08Others have collapsed
25:09under the weight
25:10of politics
25:10you could not have predicted.
25:12The work was never finished.
25:14The work was never
25:15going to be finished.
25:17That is the nature
25:18of the craft.
25:19You planted trees
25:21knowing you would not
25:22sit in their shade.
25:23Most of them never grew.
25:25A few of them did.
25:27You think about
25:28the people you worked with
25:29who are gone now.
25:30The ambassador
25:31who mentored you
25:32in your first tour.
25:33The deputy
25:34who covered for you
25:35when you made a mistake
25:36you thought
25:37would end your career.
25:37The colleague
25:39who was killed
25:40in an embassy bombing
25:4120 years ago
25:41in a city
25:42that no longer
25:43appears in the news.
25:45You carry them with you.
25:46You always will.
25:48You sit in your study
25:50most mornings.
25:51You read the news.
25:52You answer emails
25:54from former colleagues.
25:55You draft a chapter
25:56for your next book.
25:58You are 68 years old.
26:00You have lived
26:01in 11 countries.
26:02You have served
26:048 presidents.
26:04You have seen
26:06the world change
26:07in ways that felt
26:08unimaginable
26:08when you first walked
26:09into that
26:10State Department building.
26:11You were a terrified
26:1320-year-old intern then.
26:15Somewhere in a dorm room
26:17right now
26:17a college junior
26:18is filling out
26:19an application.
26:20She has never been
26:22on an airplane.
26:23She has two suits
26:24from a discount store.
26:26She is about to start
26:27something she does
26:28not understand yet.
26:30She will file papers.
26:31She will photocopy memos.
26:33She will fetch coffee
26:35for someone
26:35who will not remember
26:36her name.
26:37She will also,
26:39if she is lucky
26:40and stubborn
26:41and willing to give
26:42her life to it,
26:43become something
26:44she cannot yet imagine.
26:46She will learn the craft.
26:48She will serve her country
26:50in places her family
26:51will never visit.
26:52She will make compromises
26:54she will spend decades
26:55trying to justify
26:56to herself.
26:58She will do some good.
27:00She will fail in ways
27:01she cannot foresee.
27:03She will come home
27:04eventually.
27:06She will sit in a quiet room
27:08and look at the map
27:09on her wall.
27:10She will remember
27:11every place she served.
27:13The cycle continues.
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