Alright people, so as I near the end of my internship, I realize I have learned quite a bit and it's time to share some of my wise and unwise wisdom with the world, and any future interns who are interested.
Networking can be a funny and tricky thing, but it is encouraged as the KEY to success in Washington, DC. It often turns out that it isn't WHAT you know, but WHO you know. A wise, wise man I had an informational interview gave me advice along the lines of, "speak nicely of the people you like, and even nicer of the people you don't like" because the circles here are SMALL (especially in any circle even close to Hill involvement) and you never know who knows who, or when you'll run into people again.
Some quick suggestions:
1. Try to act confident, even when you don't feel completely sure of yourself. Push yourself to introduce yourself to as many people as you can!
2. Make sure you are cordial and polite with everyone upon meeting them for the first time
3. SMILE :) -- and a firm handshake also makes a statement, but I never quite got that down.
4. Don't be afraid to ask people for their business cards to keep in touch, and make sure to FOLLOW UP.
5. The majority of working people in Washington, DC will seem to be your age: try to eliminate people you meet in professional situations as dating material...
Some of this I have done successfully and some I have not... As the story I'm about to tell will show. I personally have felt uneasy at times because I feel that being an intern is enough of an "in-between" state to feel awkward at times. I'm definitely not a working professional, and I'm still technically a college student. But, I would encourage people to try and act more professional than you feel at all times.
So an EPIC networking fail to guarantee you a laugh: Waiting on line to get into a hearing a few weeks ago, I wound up chatting with a pretty attractive guy. When we got into the hearing, he gestured (what I thought was only to me) to exchange business cards. Mortified to give him my own card that SCREAMS intern, I mumbled something about being an intern under my breath and started talking to a friend next to me, we'll call her Amy. So this is the hearing where I met Secretary of Edu, Arne Duncan. In an attempt to befriend this cute guy, I decided to do a follow up email and tell him that he missed out on the excitement of meeting Arne when he left the hearing early. Unfortunately, the email bounced back due to "security reasons,"-- OK wasn't meant to be. Hah. A week later, I get an email from HIM, saying it was nice to meet me and he hopes our "paths cross again soon." As a precaution I get in touch with Amy who was at the hearing with me and also got his card -- apparently he had only emailed me -- so that is an offer if I've ever seen one. WRONG. I respond quickly saying that I'd love to meet up sometime, maybe over dinner? Well, he never responds. A few days later I'm at an education networking breakfast of sorts... talking to Amy... and who should walk in? But the mysterious cute boy from the hearing. "Oh by the way!" Amy says, "He DID wind up emailing me, too!" And to make my luck worse, I actually get stuck sitting RIGHT next to him. FML. After attempting to ignore him most of the time, he actually winds up talking to me at one point, apparently he is well into his 30's and keeps making references to how old he is and bla bla. Ok, I get it. In truth, he is a very nice guy, and he parted with a "let me know if you ever need anything" (aka questions about policy, jobs, etc). Moral of the story: older and attractive men may be charming and friendly, but he does not want to date you. So learn from my mistakes friends, and it's back to the brutal reality that dating is a b*tch.
Laugh it up, we all know I deserve it. More stories to come soon.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one...
Hello my friends... how is everyone doing? I went through an intern burn-out/"I'm not supposed to be in America right now" phase last week, and in an attempt to inspire rather than depress my audience, I decided not to blog. No one is perfect, we all have bad days, sometimes more than one in a row, and there is nothing wrong with that! Sometimes you just gotta take Grandma Shirley's advice, "take it one day at a time" ...I do know for a fact she got that from her Over-Eaters Anonymous program, but whatever works, right? :)
Weekend highlight: I got to see the Flaming Lips yesterday for a FREE concert on the National Mall. That concert is crazy entertaining, the lead singer puts himself in an inflatable bubble and crowd surfs. He also has these weird trippy things on stage with him-- like an inflatable smiling sun, and some strange caterpillar/butterfly thing. My roomie and I enjoyed rocking out to our favorite, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots," though I am pretty convinced none of those songs make any sense.
In the spirit of my blog name, I'm going to give you some American Studies "word vomit." So, the concert was part of a bigger festival for Earth Day. Obviously an event like this attracts all sorts of hippies, but have you ever noticed that there are different 'cultures' of hippies? I suspect this maybe has something to do with class differences, but even if that isn't always the case, it is kindof interesting. For example, (sticking to men here) there are the 'dirty' hippies that grow their hair long, put it back in silly clips and hair ties, they dress kindof ragged and generally don't match. Then there is the more "manufactured" hippy -- they have the camelback backpacks and a clean, but "down to earth" looking waterproof jackets. They generally have shaggy hair, that looks longer than the traditionally accepted length for boys, but it still looks cleanly trimmed. Just an observation...
Tonight in class we had two homeless people come speak to us. One was named Steve, he has chosen to live in voluntary poverty, as in he left life as a businessman to come live in DC with no home, no car, no phone, no money, no bed... and according to him, no worries. He spends the majority of his time hanging out in a park by American University making flutes out of bamboo sticks. He gives the flutes to people he meets, and claims that when he gives a child a flute in a park that it becomes a source of attention and community. I believe him, but I guess what struck me the most is that he has the ability and access to resources to be more productive, to do good at a larger scale, and he is choosing not to. Taking a step back, that is obviously what makes him happy... and with the wise words of Coleman McCarthy, "We aren't called on to do great things, we are asked to do small things in a great way." I think that the idea of choosing to live THAT simply is interesting at the least. The other woman who came to speak to us was really awesome, her name was Ellen, you should check out her website: http://prop1.org/. She is really trying to make a grassroots advocacy effort, pretty inspiring -- especially since I have been contemplating the effectiveness of our government during my time here. She seems to still believe in it.
Moving right along... people have been calling me naive and idealistic, even "innocent," left and right since I've started talking about this peace studies stuff. And when I went home for the weekend, 5 seconds outside of the DC bubble convinced me that these ideas are definitely not well-accepted. I made the mistake of pulling a McCarthy line at my Passover seder. A younger family friend was being questioned about what he wants to do when he 'grows up,' I put in my two cents, "do what you love and the money will follow" only to be attacked right away and basically called an idiot. Cool. I'm not denying that there are a lot of issues I am ignorant to, many systems I don't quite understand, or that I'm not completely on my own and able to understand what it is like to live without an income. But we live in a society that is too money obsessed, and I'm not a fan. All I'm saying is that we can try. We can try talking about these issues and explore ways to incorporate them into our lives. We can try to hold ourselves repsonsible for doing our tiny part, and maybe we will get some good out of it. At the least, you'll influnce one more person, and even that is an accomplishment. So I'm trying to do my tiny part, trying to start dialogue, trying to go greenER, trying to be kinder... adding more love to the world never hurt anyone, but as Coleman says, "If love were easy, we'd all be good at it." Well love is something I usually have to give. Any takers? ;-) (Not that you really have a choice anyway...)
Some peaceful quotes for you to nibble on:
"He who has experienced good in his life must feel the obligation to dedicate some of his own life in order to alleviate suffering" Albert Schweitzer
Weekend highlight: I got to see the Flaming Lips yesterday for a FREE concert on the National Mall. That concert is crazy entertaining, the lead singer puts himself in an inflatable bubble and crowd surfs. He also has these weird trippy things on stage with him-- like an inflatable smiling sun, and some strange caterpillar/butterfly thing. My roomie and I enjoyed rocking out to our favorite, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots," though I am pretty convinced none of those songs make any sense.
In the spirit of my blog name, I'm going to give you some American Studies "word vomit." So, the concert was part of a bigger festival for Earth Day. Obviously an event like this attracts all sorts of hippies, but have you ever noticed that there are different 'cultures' of hippies? I suspect this maybe has something to do with class differences, but even if that isn't always the case, it is kindof interesting. For example, (sticking to men here) there are the 'dirty' hippies that grow their hair long, put it back in silly clips and hair ties, they dress kindof ragged and generally don't match. Then there is the more "manufactured" hippy -- they have the camelback backpacks and a clean, but "down to earth" looking waterproof jackets. They generally have shaggy hair, that looks longer than the traditionally accepted length for boys, but it still looks cleanly trimmed. Just an observation...
Tonight in class we had two homeless people come speak to us. One was named Steve, he has chosen to live in voluntary poverty, as in he left life as a businessman to come live in DC with no home, no car, no phone, no money, no bed... and according to him, no worries. He spends the majority of his time hanging out in a park by American University making flutes out of bamboo sticks. He gives the flutes to people he meets, and claims that when he gives a child a flute in a park that it becomes a source of attention and community. I believe him, but I guess what struck me the most is that he has the ability and access to resources to be more productive, to do good at a larger scale, and he is choosing not to. Taking a step back, that is obviously what makes him happy... and with the wise words of Coleman McCarthy, "We aren't called on to do great things, we are asked to do small things in a great way." I think that the idea of choosing to live THAT simply is interesting at the least. The other woman who came to speak to us was really awesome, her name was Ellen, you should check out her website: http://prop1.org/. She is really trying to make a grassroots advocacy effort, pretty inspiring -- especially since I have been contemplating the effectiveness of our government during my time here. She seems to still believe in it.
Moving right along... people have been calling me naive and idealistic, even "innocent," left and right since I've started talking about this peace studies stuff. And when I went home for the weekend, 5 seconds outside of the DC bubble convinced me that these ideas are definitely not well-accepted. I made the mistake of pulling a McCarthy line at my Passover seder. A younger family friend was being questioned about what he wants to do when he 'grows up,' I put in my two cents, "do what you love and the money will follow" only to be attacked right away and basically called an idiot. Cool. I'm not denying that there are a lot of issues I am ignorant to, many systems I don't quite understand, or that I'm not completely on my own and able to understand what it is like to live without an income. But we live in a society that is too money obsessed, and I'm not a fan. All I'm saying is that we can try. We can try talking about these issues and explore ways to incorporate them into our lives. We can try to hold ourselves repsonsible for doing our tiny part, and maybe we will get some good out of it. At the least, you'll influnce one more person, and even that is an accomplishment. So I'm trying to do my tiny part, trying to start dialogue, trying to go greenER, trying to be kinder... adding more love to the world never hurt anyone, but as Coleman says, "If love were easy, we'd all be good at it." Well love is something I usually have to give. Any takers? ;-) (Not that you really have a choice anyway...)
Some peaceful quotes for you to nibble on:
"He who has experienced good in his life must feel the obligation to dedicate some of his own life in order to alleviate suffering" Albert Schweitzer
"People are unreasonable, illogical, and self centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable.
Be honest and transparent anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People who really want help may attack you if you help them.
Help them anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt.
Give the world your best anyway."
--Mother Teresa
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable.
Be honest and transparent anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People who really want help may attack you if you help them.
Help them anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt.
Give the world your best anyway."
--Mother Teresa
Monday, April 6, 2009
All Over the Place
I'll start this blog post off with my typical rant of random tragic/actually not so tragic observations of my life... my beloved "click click" shoes have officially stretched out and are showing their Payless shoe worth, causing me to spend the majority of my Monday tripping and falling on multiple occasions. And I nearly caused a traffic jam this morning right in front of the escalator (BIG rush hour no-no). And the vegetarian thing lasted three days before I accidentally ate tacos. And then chicken... soo I'm still exploring that...ish.
I had a very nice weekend. Saturday mom came to visit... we got to see some cherry blossoms, got to go to lunch with cousin Ian and his girlfriend (so nice to see them!) and then mom and I headed to one of my favorites, the National Portrait Gallery. After mom left, I headed over to what I thought was a park, but it was this strange bus-waiting area in the middle of a parking lot... I did a lot of people watching, and then my good friend Jen came to meet me and we talked and sat in the sun. Once we assembled some more interns we headed over to the Marvin Gaye Park Festival that Andrea (my roomie)'s internship, Washington, Parks, and People, was putting on in the community where I volunteer. We got there right in time for some live music... one of the Temptations was singing, it was pretty sweet.
Mommy and Me!
Oh hey mom... (It was windy) ...don't tell her this is up here ;)
Live Music at Marvin Gaye Festival:
What else... Sunday John, Andrea, and I headed over to the National Mall and parked ourselves down for a little picnic. I departed to head over to a new favorite, Bus Boys and Poets, for a discussion on race and a book called "The State of Black America in 2009." Two friends, Nick and Keith, met me at the discussion. Nick also enjoys discussing race, but this resulted in standing on a street corner debating after the talk was over (and we're both really loud). We definitely got some strange looks, but I managed to persuade him to go to a restaurant, where we wound up befriending the bartender and getting almost everyone in the place invested in our conversation. U-Street is my new favorite DC area! We will be back!
My DC fam at our picnic :)
One (good) thing I have noticed is that even though I am spending the semester only 2 hours away from Dickinson -- I have still found ways to explore the issues that I care about and most importantly, to get myself out of my comfort zone. It was sort of interesting to witness the dynamic of bringing a group of fellow white interns into a predominantly black DC neighborhood for the festival... and we should acknowledge music as powerful in bringing people together. A speaker I heard at the beginning of the semester said something along the lines of, "we need to acknowledge what we have in common before we can celebrate our differences." People are still so hesitant to talk about race... even at the discussion, I'll admit I was uncomfortable at times, and I definitely hesitated to go in the first place... but what I came to realize is that oftentimes it is important to push ourselves to do what isn't easy. It's easy to think and talk about what needs to be changed in our society, but taking the next step, to put ourselves into situations that are different and to try and understand another point of view... that is valuable experience.
And another thing, as I have officially been defeated emotionally and physically... I hope everyone is taking some time to relax, wherever they are. Because I thought I had a relaxing weekend, but my body thought otherwise. I don't think it is a secret that I don't actually know how to relax, but how do we give ourselves time to relax when there is so much going on? Meh. So you know when you sleep on your neck wrong? Well apparently I slept on my back wrong, and as the day went on my shoulders got tighter and tighter (anxiety much?) to the point I basically couldn't move. I had to skip my weekly volunteering today in an attempt to "take care of myself" ... aka having a good cry on my bed while paralyzed. I feel like I write about being overwhelmed a lot, and even when I am having an "easy" semester. Maybe I shouldn't be realizing this about myself on a public blog... but I'm only human. Moral of the story: I'll admit it, I am burnt out! I'm heading home for the weekend for Passover and Easter (the plus to being half jewish/half catholic..) I'm looking forward to a good hug from Grandma Shirley.
Anyway, we're watching slumdog millionaire... and my very attractive Indian friend just won, and they're about to make out, err wait-- just kidding-- it doesn't show them making out. Just some crazy bollywood dancing I need to learn ASAP. How do you not want to marry Dev Patel after this movie?
Sending love to wherever you are... :) Leave me some nice comments, I'd like to get some feedback on my craziness... thanks much.
I had a very nice weekend. Saturday mom came to visit... we got to see some cherry blossoms, got to go to lunch with cousin Ian and his girlfriend (so nice to see them!) and then mom and I headed to one of my favorites, the National Portrait Gallery. After mom left, I headed over to what I thought was a park, but it was this strange bus-waiting area in the middle of a parking lot... I did a lot of people watching, and then my good friend Jen came to meet me and we talked and sat in the sun. Once we assembled some more interns we headed over to the Marvin Gaye Park Festival that Andrea (my roomie)'s internship, Washington, Parks, and People, was putting on in the community where I volunteer. We got there right in time for some live music... one of the Temptations was singing, it was pretty sweet.
Mommy and Me!
Oh hey mom... (It was windy) ...don't tell her this is up here ;)Live Music at Marvin Gaye Festival:
My DC fam at our picnic :)One (good) thing I have noticed is that even though I am spending the semester only 2 hours away from Dickinson -- I have still found ways to explore the issues that I care about and most importantly, to get myself out of my comfort zone. It was sort of interesting to witness the dynamic of bringing a group of fellow white interns into a predominantly black DC neighborhood for the festival... and we should acknowledge music as powerful in bringing people together. A speaker I heard at the beginning of the semester said something along the lines of, "we need to acknowledge what we have in common before we can celebrate our differences." People are still so hesitant to talk about race... even at the discussion, I'll admit I was uncomfortable at times, and I definitely hesitated to go in the first place... but what I came to realize is that oftentimes it is important to push ourselves to do what isn't easy. It's easy to think and talk about what needs to be changed in our society, but taking the next step, to put ourselves into situations that are different and to try and understand another point of view... that is valuable experience.
And another thing, as I have officially been defeated emotionally and physically... I hope everyone is taking some time to relax, wherever they are. Because I thought I had a relaxing weekend, but my body thought otherwise. I don't think it is a secret that I don't actually know how to relax, but how do we give ourselves time to relax when there is so much going on? Meh. So you know when you sleep on your neck wrong? Well apparently I slept on my back wrong, and as the day went on my shoulders got tighter and tighter (anxiety much?) to the point I basically couldn't move. I had to skip my weekly volunteering today in an attempt to "take care of myself" ... aka having a good cry on my bed while paralyzed. I feel like I write about being overwhelmed a lot, and even when I am having an "easy" semester. Maybe I shouldn't be realizing this about myself on a public blog... but I'm only human. Moral of the story: I'll admit it, I am burnt out! I'm heading home for the weekend for Passover and Easter (the plus to being half jewish/half catholic..) I'm looking forward to a good hug from Grandma Shirley.
Anyway, we're watching slumdog millionaire... and my very attractive Indian friend just won, and they're about to make out, err wait-- just kidding-- it doesn't show them making out. Just some crazy bollywood dancing I need to learn ASAP. How do you not want to marry Dev Patel after this movie?
Sending love to wherever you are... :) Leave me some nice comments, I'd like to get some feedback on my craziness... thanks much.
Last pic...Me attacking Jen by some blossoms Friday night:
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