If you never leave home, never let go, you'll never make it to the great unknown

If you never leave home, never let go, you’ll never make it to the great unknown till you keep your eyes open.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, it’s a quote from one of my favorite songs by Needtobreathe. Being in DC has made me so grateful that I’ve had so many experiences where I have had to or chosen to step out of my comfort zone. College has been a rough road to say the least but there are so many lessons I have learned. The main one being the importance of branching out.  It’s scary if you think about it too much, but if you just go do something instead of thinking about it can be so rewarding.

Sometimes taking the greatest risks lead to the greatest rewards.

Do one thing every day that scares you. Alright, so I’ve been thinking about this one, and I definitely don’t do something every day, but this is definitely something I believe everyone should live out at least sometimes.

  

Too often, we wait thinking there will be a better time to live out our dreams without actively pursuing them. But why wait, life is short.

I basically made my best friend in DC by saying hey, I don’t really know you but you’re from Texas, I live there sometimes, and lets get lunch. Or telling my fellow theta Bonich that I was obsessed with Cambodia and that we should be friends because she is from there. Or my friend Shelby likes to tell the fact  about when she beat me in a race and  I said let’s go running together and she thought I was a little crazy but then we became great friends.

When I think of the people that inspire me, most of them have branched out of their comfort zone to the point that some would definitely question their sanity, but have benefitted others. Yesterday I had the privilege of hearing a woman named Baroness Cox speak about her organization called HART, Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust. She basically started in during a crisis in Armenia and goes to closed states (meaning their government won’t allow aid workers), sneaks by borders, missiles, and armies to get aid to people that need it most. Her stories were incredible. Oh and just a small detail, she’s 75. (!) And still spends about half of her time traveling to Burma, Uganda, Nigeria, Armenia, among others. Here’s a link to her Wikipedia page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Cox,_Baroness_Cox

 Definitely a woman who knows that when she ventures out to forbidden places, there are armies and warrants out for her arrest but she says “ I cannot do everything, but I must not do nothing.” The love she has for oppressed people is truly worth emulating.

Well, this blog post was a little all over the place, but just reflects some of my thoughts right now. Update on the rest of my week coming soon!

One Month In the District: Becoming a DC Native

Considering that I often spend the majority of 9-10 hour days at a computer, typing a blog is often not the first thing I want to do at home.  However, from here on out I’ll definitely try to update my blog more than once a week. I can’t believe I’ve already been in DC a month! I’ve only lived in two other places (Fort Worth and Baton Rouge) for a whole month.  I definitely feel like I know my area pretty well, could recommend a few sites, restaurants, and shops and know where a handful of metro stations will get you instead of just popping up out of the ground and wondering where I am.

I can’t believe it’s already been another week and that my first internship is already halfway over! On Monday, I finished up some research I was working on. Then, I went to a small group with my church and my friend Claire. It was really great and our leader, Hannah was so welcoming! Tuesday was just another day at work, but I went to a briefing on women’s health and that was neat. Wednesday, I was able to go to a briefing on human trafficking. It was amazing and taught me a lot of new angles to the issue, I hadn’t previously thought about. It was sponsored by Google and 12 Congresswomen in the house. That weekend, I went to my running group where I ran through Navy Yard by Nationals stadium and across the Anacostia River, which incidentally while writing this I just realized was in Maryland, because I thought I’d never been to Maryland, but apparently I have (even if only for 20 min…)

Congresswomen at the human trafficking briefing

However, the highlight of my weekend was definitely my friend Rachel and her family coming to visit.  I loved being a tourist guide and showing them around and sort of knowing how to get to different places. We saw all of the mall memorials (World War 2, Washington, Lincoln, Korean War, and Vietnam Veterans) and the white house.

Rachel and I at the Lincoln Memorial

This past week I went to a briefing on humanitarian policy, where I met the heads of Oxfam, Worldvision, and Save the Children. It focused a lot on using aid responsibly to best meet the needs of the people being served, and how they decide who to partner with in foreign countries. One thing they all stressed was staying neutral during foreign conflicts and not taking sides but just helping and empowering those in need. I also went to a briefing on the state of the conflict in Congo, which was sponsored by Care International and also very informational. On Friday, I went to a briefing on military base redevelopment, certainly not my area of expertise, however it paired nicely with my research and it was interesting to hear all of the challenges and laws when a base closes. I also went to a hoity-toity social club where politicians and lobbyists make deals.

Theta friends at the baseball game

On Thursday, I went to the congressional baseball game, which has been going on since 1909. I feel like everyone I’d met here has talked about it since I got here and the democrats had been victorious the past 5 years. Well, they were again, winning 22-0 and Cedric Richmond, who is from Louisiana was the star. But, it was still neat and sitting two rows behind the republican dugout, which included Rand Paul and Eric Cantor was pretty cool.

9/11 Pentagon Memorial

This weekend my friend Whitney and I went to Alexandria, Virginia and the Pentagon Memorial. Alexandria was a super cute city with lots of shops and history and has a pretty view of the Potomac waterfront. The Pentagon Memorial was also interesting and I’d never been to the Pentagon before. I feel like the 9/11 attacks on the pentagon are somewhat forgotten, since we often think about the World Trade Center attacks which killed many more people. However, 184 people died on the plane and in the pentagon. The memorial had 184 little benches that represented the deaths and faced towards the pentagon if the deceased had been in the building or away if they were on the plane. I thought this memorial was particularly interesting because in contrast to many other memorials it’s not commemorating one person, and it’s difficult to capture that many personalities. But, I thought they did a good job. So, with that solemn thought and some images, I’m onto my fifth(!) week in the city, can’t wait to see what adventures come next!

Just Another Day in Paradise

Ok so paradise could be a stretch… but I love DC. It has been miserably hot this weekend. And that’s coming from someone who has only lived in two of the hottest places in the country. But 95 and zero clouds when you spend all day walking gets pretty hot and gross. Now that I’m done complaining here’s a recap of another amazing week in the life of an intern that only has to work 3-4 days a week.

This week congress was in recess, which meant that everyone was super casual and congress wasn’t in session. Although I didn’t wear jeans till Wednesday because I didn’t believe that people actually wore jeans to the office ever… Also that getting to the office 15 minutes early was not appropriate because no one got there that early this week. One of our legislative assistants came in Tuesday with a huge binder and asked who wanted to read it. One of the other interns nominated me and I had no idea what it was about. I don’t think I can say what it was about but I did a lot of research and read hundreds of pages this week and felt like I was actually making a difference. On Wednesday at my running group, one of the other runners who is a lobbyist for a child welfare nonprofit told me lots of new information on the FARM bill which is a hot topic right now. Basically every single conversation you have with anyone here somehow pertains to politics… no matter what, I’m sure I’ll get sick of that at some point, but for right now its fine. On the bright side, if you stay up to date with your politics you always have something to talk about with complete strangers. And I have to say I like hanging out at friends’ apartments watching TED talks, as nerdy as that may sound.

On Friday, I had the day off and I met my Theta mentor through the DC theta alumnae program and she works in the same building as me and is only 5 years older. Every day off I try to just go exploring (in the safe areas of course) and try not to get too comfortable going to the same places. One of my friends and I even made a rule for ourselves that we’re not allowed to eat at the same place more than twice because there are so many neat places to try. So on Friday I walked to embassy row and did some exploring. Dupont Circle is a really pretty area and a little quieter than the hill. Today, I went to get a manicure with a friend and the red metro stations by where we were going were closed so that meant lots of walking. Then, I went to a theta event on the mall and met 4 other girls who are interning and 6 theta alumnae from around the country. They gave us tons of useful information about places to go and things to do. The college thetas were awesome too, yay for new friends! Then I walked about 2.5 miles back from the mall with one of my new theta friends from Princeton who happens to live one block over.  So, that’s been my week so far. This next week I’m looking forward to joining an intern small group with my church, National Community Church and going to briefings on the hill about human trafficking and rural women’s health. Oh and I'm actually working 4 days this week and my friend Rachel is coming to visit! And of course, having more new adventures! 

Gandhi Statue and India Embassy, I felt compelled to read the info on every statue, even though some of them were in Turkish and other strange languages.