The First Post

My name is Aaron Robert Matney and I'm senior at the University of Oregon studying Economics and Political Science, which one I enjoy the most differs most days.

I live in Eugene, OR where I've grown up and have spent valuable time traveling in Italy and Greece in high school on a trip with peers and teachers from International High School, the high school I attended. This trip opened the world outside of Eugene, of Oregon, of America to globalisation and the international community. I opted to spend my year after high school as an exchange student in Lucerne, Switzerland through Rotary Youth Exchange. I lived with three Swiss families during my time there in the surrounding cantons outside of Lucerne, commuting to Lucerne for rigorous schooling from 8 to 5 at the Kantonschule Alpenqaui. I joined a class in the fifth year studying Economics and Law. School and reading was in High German, everything else was in Swiss German and this forced me to quickly adapt and learn both languages simultaneously.

It's easy to learn a language when you are so immersed in it and after two quiet months I began to excel, nearing mastering High German and improving my Swiss German by the time I left Switzerland. I travelled to Germany, Italy, and Egypt during my time there. I enjoyed in Egypt in particular and I'll always remember the eerie feeling I had as we drove on coastal highways through ghost towns and half finished soviet style apartment housing, either never finished or never used. The drivers didn't speak much when we past those areas and looking back on it, how  strange the socioeconomic atmosphere was outside our resort, one could foresee the seeds of the Arab Spring that would follow in two years.

It also helped me realize what career I wanted to seek. I wanted to work on these issues, I wanted to investigate and research them, whether politically or economically I knew my studies would aim me towards that end.

I took as many high level classes as I could during my first two years with a focus on European affairs and extensive research on the European Union. I finished my Political Science degree by Fall of my third year and capped it off by interning abroad through the Political Science department in Edinburgh, Scotland at the Scottish Parliament. I was there for five months and worked anywhere between 30 and 45 hours a week for an MSP from Glasgow in the Scottish National Party, the majority party seeking independence from the United Kingdom.

I was a general aide and my work greatly varied from compiling research briefings, ghostwriting constituent letters and speech material, authoring parliamentary motions and press releases, and assisting with the my MSP's guests and events. It was a very enjoyable experience in which I gained a multitude of valuable skills. It also fine tuned my interested in international affairs.

Upon returning to finish my studies in economics I attended multiple campus visits by Ambassador Steven Browning from the U.S. State Department and I was immediately hooked on the Foreign Service. This is what I've been looking for, where I see myself working when I'm older. I've always wanted to work in Public Service but I hadn't narrowed in down yet exactly where. I have been working towards that end since.

This blog will serve as a personal blog on a variety of things such as my career plans and studies as well as my hobbies of gardening, writing, and love of all things soccer. I don't dabble to much in social media and I've never tweeted but I hope to share it with my friends and family and interested parties.

Best,
Aaron Robert Matney