THE FEBRUARY 27- MARCH 6, 2010 FSOT

The window of opportunity....has knocked? This year I decided to change my life. I have applied to take the US Department of State's Foreign Service Office Test. If I pass the test and am eventually selected for the position, I would be a Management Officer serving my country overseas by running embassies. Since my track is Management I have a good opportunity to be seated for the exam, according to the pasted information from DOS. My wife and I call it DOS, like uno, dos... it is a catchy phrase. The DOS opportunity allows me to serve my country again (dos) and start my second career (dos).

Seat scheduling for the February test begins for candidates who have completed their Registration. Invitations to schedule seats are issued by career track, and then on a first-come, first-served basis until capacity is reached. Career tracks
management and economic will be invited first, followed by consular, and
then political and public diplomacy.

I am writing this blog to capture my adventure, my forray into the realm of diplomatic relations. This is the goal of my evolution.

Let's try and keep up...

To study or to play, that is the question.

I read an interesting article on MSN.com today. Apparently the brain is like a muscle, it can be worked out and buffed up. The article talked about how a child's IQ can change significantly, swinging in both directions. This kind of makes sense to me because I felt like I became a different person after I completed boot camp. It would make sense that the changes are linked with hormonal changes, like when a women becomes pregnant. I understand that hormones cause her brain to change, permanently.

So, here's my question. I understand that an increased intelligence helps me to reach my far-reaching goals, yet I do not constantly flex my brain muscle. Today I feel like playing. I know what I should do....but playing is fun.

I'm opting to study because change cannot come without sacrifice. My goal, my passion is to evolve, to change myself. There will be time later for games.

Change is a process.

One day I grew tired of the way I wrote the number 2, so I decided to change. I examined other commonly written forms of the number and made a choice based on the one which appealed to me the most. Now that I write my 2's differently, am I a different person? I saw a need or desire to change, researched options, picked one and consciously changed the way I write the number 2. I am still Eldon, just tweaked ever so slightly.

Is it more important to understand why I want to change than what I want to change ?

In life, or my life anyway, most changes have evolved me. One experience, positive or negative, builds on another and shaped who I represent today, and tomorrow. That being said...I believe that there are two fundamental types of changes, reactive and proactive. The first type of change is mostly involuntary. I learned that an electric stove top was hot even when it was no longer red at a fairly young age, I changed my behavior in reaction to a painful event. The other kind of change is willed, voluntary evolution, and the topic of this blog.

I like who I am and have no regrets about my choices, because the have made me who I am today. However, I have a dream. I want to see how far I can travel down the path. While the path has no foreseeable end, the adventure is in the journey not the destination. My ideal path contains a few goals. First thing is to graduate college, followed by learning another language to the point of being near bi-lingual. Somewhere in the distance, I see a possible world-wide adventure, or a grassroots effort. I seek wisdom and understanding and to grow into the person that I want to become.

Along the way, I will change. This blog will track my spritiual, emotional, psychological, physical and intellectual changes.