A selfish kind of love

This weekend I finally told my mom about being laid off. She has a lot of stress on her plate right now and I have been hesitant to contribute to it. I was talking to her about my plans and mentioned to her that I was planning on taking the FSOT this year, maybe in only a few months (yikes! so soon!) if my job hunt wasn't going well.

Now, I didn't expect her to be happy. My sister isn't even happy about it because she doesn't want me to be so far away. What I didn't expect was for my mom to tell me that, and I quote, she wants me to fail horribly. Sigh. She doesn't want me to possibly go to a country where my life would be put at risk. But really, fail horribly? I guess that's love, if only an incredibly selfish kind of love that has completely effed up priorities.

She also seems to hope I lose my house and have to live with her. Yeah, no. Do other people who join the foreign service face these kinds of issues from their family?