Oil, Birthdays, Africa, and NYC: Just another week

How often do you get to meet the President of Conoco- Phillips to discuss oil in the gulf and the doctor that pioneered the newest HIV drug in the same day?

Well, that’s not an unbelievable or uncommon occurrence in my recent senate life.  On Thursday I went to an AIDS briefing with some of the top AIDS experts in the world and then rushed back to the office to sit in on a meeting with the President of Conoco Phillips and our Senator. 

On Tuesday, my Senator received a prestigious award from the Coast Guard for her dedication to funding Military families’ needs. The admiral, Admiral Robert Papp, has Alopecia and spoke at the DC convention in 2003, which should be noted that was the first year I lobbied and met my senator. The world just continues to get smaller. Admiral Papp told me that I should email him and he would love to get more involved with the convention. Once again, in case you don’t believe that everything happens for a reason, come be a fly on the wall in my life.

 I also attended another great reception, which had extensive free sushi. Sometimes, as interns we wonder what the lobbyists’ motives are beyond feeding interns… However, we are not complaining.

Our office has been great about helping us get to know all of the staff and we had a lunch with the legislative team and got to learn all of their life stories.  We have quite the range of people in our office with great life stories, from a marine to a girl in the army to 5 TFA alums and a Foreign Service officer.

On Friday, we had an intern outing after work to Jazz in the Garden, which is a sculpture garden that features a different music group every week. Then I went to dinner for my friend Claire’s birthday. Claire is a great person and leader and always gives wonderful advice. We met through theta and she goes to church with me and lives 2 blocks down the street. She goes to Princeton and is studying abroad in France this fall. I’ll miss her when I leave in 2 weeks! Then, we went to hang out at 3 of my fellow interns’ apartment. The 12 of us that work in Landrieu’s office are incredibly different, but we manage to get along, despite occasionally arguing over politics and what part of Louisiana is best.

On Saturday at 4 am I headed to NYC to meet up with my friend Colleen who is interning in Connecticut. We accomplished a lot in less than 36 hours. We went on the Staten Island Ferry, walked around a lot, went to Times Square, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Natural History, 9/11 Memorial, and all around Central Park. It was really fun and I also got to meet up with my friend Michael from TCU.

Now, I’m back on the megabus to DC somewhere in New Jersey. If I stay awake I’ll get to see parts of Penn, Delaware, and Maryland too. Can’t believe I’ll be heading back to LA and Texas in 13 days.  For now, I’m focusing on this week which will consist of a roundtable on human trafficking at the state department, lunch with African Ambassadors, research on the war in Congo, 3 of my friends coming to visit and much more!

In keeping with my new precedent of finding quotes, I searched long and hard (on pinterest of course) for a quote I felt described my life of lately.  Thought this one was appropriate because of all the dreams I’ve continued to pursue and the twists and turns they have given me but in the end they have been so worth it.

Sentimental Moments in the U.S. Senate

Without sounding like a broken record, it really is amazing how time flies. While some afternoons I wonder if I will ever get off work, most of the time I really can’t believe another day has passed. I’m one day away from finishing my first week in my dream internship in the senate.

This internship is incredibly different from my previous one. Starting a new internship always has its challenges because you have to establish yourself and gain some credibility amongst the staffers, understandably so. There are 15 interns in my new office and sometimes it’s a little chaotic. There are 35ish staffers, compared to 7 in my previous office. The senate offices definitely run a little different than the house, but they are both fun and great learning experiences. Often there are about 10 of us interns in our small room fighting over three computers and distracting each other. But, its always a different day.

On Tuesday, we had a meeting with our senator and I almost teared up when I told her that she was my reason for entering politics. Today we had a meeting with the chief of staff which was neat, he’s a pretty cool guy.

Lucky for me, my legislative assistant and I know some of the same people so she trusted me pretty quickly after talking to them. So, today I got to start working on a bill which my senator will hopefully like and want to introduce on the floor. I am so excited to get to pioneer a bill!! I actually saw that it had been introduced in the house and asked my LA if we could work on it in the senate. So, fingers crossed, I will be sitting in the balcony of the senate at some point, listening to my senator read the bill. Without giving too much away, its about Africa and human rights.

Amidst the busy-ness, I've found a lot of peace lately in DC. Here's a quote I like:

On a totally different note, I’m reading this book called The Circle Maker by the pastor of my church in DC, Mark Batterson. I’ve had a lot on my mind trying to figure out where I am going to intern in the fall, mainly because I want to apply to about 100 places ranging from the UN to public defenders to human trafficking orgs. But this quote really stood out to me. So, I’ll leave all my blog readers with this thought:

"I learned we shouldn't seek answers as much as we should seek God. We get overanxious. We try to microwave our own answers instead of trusting God's timing. But here's an important reminder: If you seek answers you won't find them, but if you seek God, the answers will find you."- Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker

Ode to a New Beginning

(Originally written 7/7)

Tomorrow I will begin a new internship that will last four weeks in the Senate. Although, I’ve cut through Hart Senate Building almost every day on my way to and from work for the past 6 weeks, tomorrow the long journey (cue sarcasm) across the street and to the elevator, literally, I predict it will take me approximately four minutes, what a commute, will be a little more special.

Because this internship is one I have wanted for the past 10 years (half of my life).

 Since I made my first trek to DC on behalf of Alopecia the summer after fourth grade and got to meet this Senator personally and was invited to Bring Your Daughter to Work Day I’ve wanted to intern for this Senator. Yes, I’ll admit, I actually cried when I found out I was accepted (cue spotted:DC Interns blog or buzzfeed: The Crying Intern)- both of those websites love to make fun of interns. I still remember, it was the beginning of April and I was walking out of my Disasters and Failures class (let’s hope that’s not some kind of omen) when they called me.  Prior to these experiences, my political knowledge came from my daily watching of Good Morning America, frequently watching Nancy Grace, and occasionally watching CSPAN.

This internship will be an interesting contrast to my previous one. The next few months will continue to be marked by new experiences and transitions. I’m in shock that there’s only a month (well kinda) left in the summer before heading to Baton Rouge for a day and then off to Texas for recruitment. Hopefully, I will be finalizing my internship for the fall in DC sometime in July (translation: getting an offer and accepting an internship). Looking forward to this new crop of interns- there will be about 10 in my new office- and some new adventures in July! 

DC to St. Louis: Switching Gears

(Originally written 6/30)

Well, in the past 2 weeks, I have finished my first internship and am currently traveling around half the country. I can’t believe I’ve already lived in DC for almost 7 weeks. While I feel like I know a lot about the area I live in, I still have so much to learn about other areas of the city.

Right now, I’m sitting on a plane to Boston somewhere between Indiana or Ohio, after spending the past 36 hours in St. Louis.  So, I’ll recap that portion first, since it was most recent. I attended my 11^th, although not consecutive Alopecia Areata convention. I didn’t get in until about midnight on Friday night because of weather delays in DC and was up at 6am for the Tortoise and Hair in St. Louis. If you know me, than you know that the tortoise and hair has been a big part of my life. Although my family no longer holds a race in Baton Rouge, we planned the race for five years and raised over $125,000. Now, we’ve lost track of the cities it’s been held in, at least 15. It’s always neat to see another race pop up somewhere. The Tortoise and Hair events at conferences work a little differently, because we usually raised most of our money from sponsors and runners but at conferences it’s not as much about raising money as it is about awareness and inspiring other people to plan their own races. But, we were surprised to learn that it raised $42,000! So that was exciting. It’s a powerful thing to see something you started impact a lot of people.

Here are some pictures from tortoise and hair over the years.

Also at the NAAF conference, I was able to speak about lobbying on the hill and the tortoise and hair, which was neat, I will also be helping with a lobbying day in DC in September. I also got to tour the Missouri Botanical Gardens with my dad, and they were beautiful! 

Moving on to my DC Life: During my last two weeks of my internship, I was definitely stretched. My congressman called me last week and asked me to make a movie.  I honestly didn’t even know where to start. I don’t think I’ve ever made a video before, maybe back in middle school. So, over the next 3 days I spent many hours filming, cutting clips, editing audio and learning that was a program called Imovie (literally…), and being thankful I have a mac. But, it turned out okay! Once I figure everything out I’ll post it. On Thursday, our congressman took us to breakfast. It was really neat for the 4 of us interns to get to talk to him for about an hour and a half. Well, for the next week I’ll be traveling through the Northeast, including stays in Boston and Maine. Although, I’m pretty bummed I won’t be witnessing DC’s 4^th of July celebrations from the Speaker’s Balcony, hopefully there will be some fun events in Maine. Then, back to DC to begin my stint in the Senate!