I have hit the one month milestone. Woohoo! I have made it through my first month milestone and none of the bad things my parents and friends have warned me about have happened. I have not been stranded in the middle of nowhere, mugged or felt homesick. *knock on wood* Thank goodness!
I am very excited to have hit this milestone because it means I lose my tourist status. I now know how to use the metro system effectively. I know when is the earliest time I can cross the street to get to my next destination. I have eaten lunch at the food trucks without fear of food poisoning. At my internship I have learned everyone’s name, where there office is and helped them with at least one project. Which for a girl who has a serious difficulty remembering names is an amazing feat. Washington D.C. is a city of opportunities! I have learned so much and met so many people who I never thought I would come in contact with. My highlights for this month are Connie a grant specialist who writes the criteria for federal grants for museums, Kerry Kennedy who spoke at the Robert F. Kennedy Book & Journalism Awards on Thursday who graciously took my business card, a finance lawyer I met on the metro on her way to capitol hill to meet with a finance committee and a political cartoonist named Jen Sorensen who won a RFK Journalism award. These are so far four of the most impressive people I have met in D.C. aside from my professors at W.I.I. and my coworkers at the Attorney General’s Office. Strangely enough, two out of four of these people I met on the metro. Proof that everyone takes public transportation. All of them have been women and each one of them have proved to me that you have to try really hard to make it in there fields. They have also shown me that we need to incorporate more women into the work force. Honestly this idea took me by surprise, ever since women fought for the right to vote and earned it I felt that we have had an even playing field. However, this past month I fully realized that the scale has not been as properly balanced as I thought. When I talked to the Finance lawyer going to Capitol Hill (whose name I cannot, shamefully, remember) was telling me, when she started to go to meetings there was at least a couple of women in the room. However numbers have been dwindling, to the point where she would be the only woman in the room at her next meeting. This thought has been replaying in my head over and over again because I thought that we had more women in office than ever. As you can see my scale has been somewhat out of line. While this statement is true that we have more women in office than before it is not enough to be a 50/50 representation. However, aside from my slight political enlightenment this week by reflecting upon this past month I can proudly say that I have kept my active trend going and it is officially a habit. *Note: it takes at least 28 days to form a habit. So this past week we had the symposium on Syria. This allowed me to learn more about a controversial issue facing our nation in foreign policy. On Tuesday after class, my friend Nicole brought some of my class to a free concert at th National geographic center. There was Latin 1960s rebellion music playing with a wonderful singer and band jamming their hearts out. However, before the band came on stage two Latin dancers gave us all a quick lesson on dancing. This was no piece of cake but tons of fun because it didn't matter that we all looked kind of silly. Thursday night Dr. Dollhouse, president of W.I.I., invited us along to the Newsuem to see the awards ceremony of the Robert F. Kennedy Book and Journalism Awards. This was a wonderful experience and it is actually were I met two of my most influential people from D.C. (Ms. Kennedy and Mrs. Sorenson). I loved the awards ceremony they told stories of Mr. Robert F. Kennedy, why this award was so important to his legacy, and the hard-to-talk-about topics of each reward winner. The topics ranged from Healthcare and stealing hospitals, to poverty in Belize, and the economy. The food after was amazing! I am still getting used to the idea that with every speaker and get together there is amazing food. On Saturday my friends and I took a small day trip to Baltimore. We spent the day wandering around the touristy harbor area attempting to get to a historic island but we missed both of the boats to get there. For lunch we stopped at an Irish Pub/restaurant and I had for the first time ever Fish and Chips. It was a wonderful experience and some of the better food I have had while in Washington D.C (yes I know it was in Baltimore)! After lunch and missing our boat we did discover a little festival were people were handing out free cupcakes. The rest of my week has been relatively uneventful. I found out today that my office will continue to be running in the possible government shut down that is looking to be more and more likely. The Attorney General’s Office has funds saved to be able to function for another two weeks without any more federal funding. Although, I am not a paid employee I have my fingers crossed that there will be a reasonable spending bill passed shortly. However, I am excited to do keep on going and do this week all over again. One month down only about 2 more to go!
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AuthorMy name is Shannon McCullough. I have Political Science and Legal Studies degree at Nazareth College of Rochester. I have previously interned at the Office of the Attorney General for DC. Currently, I am studying my Masters degree in International Relations at Shandong University in Jinan, China. Archives
September 2016
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