Capitol Spill

Will work for food

What kind of work would I consider “worthwhile”?  This question actually turned out to be quite difficult.  I decided to list what I think is worthwhile in work from most to least importance.  This question was taken from material in my Internship class. 

    1. Accomplishment

I personally think Accomplishment is the most important component of a job.  I believe that a job that allows you to feel that sense of accomplishment keeps you motivated to take on the next challenge.  This made me to realize that I can never be an archivist.  A single collection can takes years to finish and there are constantly more coming in, creating an eternal to-do list that would drive the life out of me.  Since High School I have been working on several projects planting native trees and shrubs in a pasture in Kansas.  The massive cottonwood trees that once lined the creek bed have nearly died out, leaving the area devoid of any beauty (unless you can consider a fat cow beautiful).  It takes years of work before the trees are self-sufficient.  I have tasted the bitterness of setbacks; grasshoppers, deer, drought, but I have been motivated by all the little victories along the way.

    2.Self-actualization

Ever since I was a kid I have been drawn to things that allow me to be creative.  I started with Legos and Lincoln Logs and later took a liking to drawing and writing.  I believe a job that stifles creativity puts a roadblock in the employee’s brain.  A sense of value is replaced with emptiness as we perform robotic tasks in a robotic way.  I love work that allows me to put my signature on it, so to speak.  When we lose the opportunity to be creative at work we tend to start glancing at the clock more and work becomes, well, work; boring, lifeless, endless, mindless work. 

Show Me What I'm Looking For

One of the most intimidating buildings is the Harry S. Truman State Department building. Every time I have to go there by myself, I’m afraid that I’ll get lost and never be able to find my way out again. I discussed this a little bit earlier in the semester, because my third day on the job I had to navigate the bowels of this building all by myself; luckily for me a new urban legend about the lost intern who haunts the basement wasn’t born. Those initial fears and apprehensions about the building come with me every time I visit, so it was not good for me that I had to visit the building multiple times this past week.

The first time I had to visit was because my badge broke, leading me to once again have flashbacks to my first week as an intern, and all the unfortunate walking and confusion that came with the job title. Normally I go in one of the side gates instead of the Visitor’s Center because it’s closer to my office. To get into the complex you have to stick your badge in the slot then when the light comes on you type in a code. Well the light never came on for me, so I had to make the long hike around the outside of the complex to the Visitor’s Center. After talking with General Services, I found out I needed to make the trek to Main State to get a new badge.  As I got on the shuttle to go to Main State, fear was slowly building; I just knew I was going to get lost again, and since it was a Friday my office wouldn’t know I was missing until Monday morning. Luckily for me, the badging office was in a different spot than it was last time, right inside the entrance! I got my badge without any problems, and was able to grab a quick lunch before having to come back to Main State for meetings that afternoon for my Public Policy paper.

How to Obtain a Personalized Capitol Tour

    While working in a Congressional office interns are called upon to give personalized Capitol tours for constituents. This serves as an opportunity for interns to represent members of Congress whom they are working for and get away from the office to gain experience dealing with individuals on a public stage. The Capitol Visitor Center (C.V.C.) offers these tours to the general public, however if scheduled through a congressional office one can save at minimum an hour of waiting time and avoid large groups with a tour guide dedicated to their specific interests. With a trained competent congressional intern giving you a personalized tour one can gain so much more in terms of historical knowledge than with large group tour provided by the C.V.C.

    When wanting to schedule a tour of the Capitol building the first step is to call the Washington, D.C. office of the member of Congress who represents your home district. This information can be obtained easily online. Once you have contact that particular office you’re going to be asked to provide certain information about your group for security purposes. This process usually takes about two weeks for clearance. Once you have been cleared with Capitol security you then inform your Washington, D.C. district office on which date and time you will be visiting Capitol Hill.

Asking Questions Through Life

Question: The five W’s and an H. Yes or no. The way to succeed in Jeopardy.

Answer: What is a question?

From how are you? to can we fix poverty? to how much does this cost? Embedded in everyday communication, questions are integral to human interactions. Every aspect of my semester encourages me to continue to engage in this interactive learning process.

For example, I am required to attend class armed with a thought-provoking question to explore the current topics and class discussions. Well-framed and probing questions drive topic exploration and the learning process. While the answers or solutions are not always found, we certainly have responses as we work towards an answer.

Be part of the conversation

D.C. is a town teeming with stories.  Some need to be told, investigated, plucked from obscurity and given their due. Others need to be heard, providing a valuable insight for their intended audience. All comprise a larger conversation, articulating their own distinct message amidst the intersecting expressions of our nation’s capital.

From the moment I stepped within city limits, it was clear the historic and transient city is like none other. The first night spent at the Dellenback Center at the American Studies program, I was met with a harsh reality: everyone in D.C. has more stories than I do.

Tramping around the quadrants of the city on a scavenger hunt during the first weekend meaningful exchanges shared with others upheld this theory. D.C. is bursting at the seams full of stories- from familiar faces in the markets, to strangers on the metro and friends in church.

Learning Skills and Greater Flexibility!

    Learning to be flexible, and learning to increase in one’s skills, is something that I am working at accomplishing while being at my internship, and beyond. The following discuss some areas of my growth, both in the area of being sharpened in my skills, and second, in the area of becoming flexible.

    In life, many opportunities, as well as many trials or disturbances, disrupt life. What does this mean for me, as a student worker? What does this mean for my life? Am I simply to ignore the stressful onslaught of change, or become flexible? For some time, I have been learning to become more flexible, even though it is often very hard to honor. What this means is that, I, as a learning human being, must be willing to adjust my life with change. Within my internship, I am learning to be flexible with the change that comes daily, as various events and necessities must become priority. Learning to be flexible is not simply a thing to be mastered at the internship; it must be applied to life in general.

Faith Amidst Depravity

Our first two weeks here were spent thinking about vocation in our lives, looking back into the meaning I found myself reflecting on what I had wrote in our initial projects. I had written: “ I have also realized that I cannot rely on myself, but must allow myself to be used to change the world. Due to my ignorance and character I am unable to do anything that would realistically change the world. How can we allow ourselves to be willing vessels in our vocations? That conundrum is one that every Christian faces.” Now, six weeks in, I realize what I meant by my aforementioned statement.

It is true that I cannot rely on myself, I am not enough. In my internship I realized that even to accomplish one project we must use each other’s gifts and wisdom together to make change.My organization has many religious goals that are mixed with ideological truths. It reminds me of how diverse people can be and how my unique talents can be an asset to my think tank. I had written about the sense of depravity and ignorance which prevented me from making change in the world. I have no doubt that what I had said is true; and instead I believe it even more so. When you imagine our faults and disconnect with our world, it is easy to understand the challenge it is to actually change the structure of our society.

Holding Hands to Cross the Street

Do you remember holding hands to cross the street? You would have been around three or four years old and your mom or dad would stop you at the corner and say “Now we are going to hold hands crossing the road”. Why? I mean, it’s not like their holding your hand would have kept you safe if some car came whipping around the corner, it’s not that they were more afraid you’d trip and fall on the asphalt than on the sidewalk, so why? I asked a mom this and her response was that when they stopped and held hands it was a reinforcement of the idea that the street was a dangerous place and that it should not be attempted by her four year old son alone.

Always up for a good metaphor, I have been thinking about all the crosswalks in DC. The reason for crosswalks is that they are directions, directions on how not to get hit by cars, trucks, metro buses, or crazed bicycle riders with ties flapping in the wind. The little white man blinks reassuringly, ‘If you cross now, you won’t get smooshed like a frog on the I-90’. It is important to follow directions, especially when it involves physical peril from motor vehicles.

In highschool we are also encouraged to follow directions, get to school at this time, when a bell rings go to this class, the paper is to be this long, in that font, with those citations… Even in college, when we are beginning to see the bright and shining light of adulthood at the end of the tunnel of teenageism, we are still required to live in certain places, follow communal rules, go to class, and complete assignments to the specifications of the all knowing syllabus.

Feeling implicated

As soon as I exited the holocaust museum, I breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, that was long!”  But more than long, it was draining, and honestly, incredibly depressing. Once we left the museum, we could feel much better. No, maybe we didn’t forget about what we saw in there, but after a day or two, we were able to stop thinking about the mass murders and gas chambers. Unlike some surviving victims, we will not have to think every day of our lives about the hundreds of Jews that were executed. Good. Since it’s over, I don’t need to feel implicated. Or is it?

Well, I’m glad to say that, my experiences at DC so far, have not allowed me to get out of this museum so easily. For me, the holocaust is not over. After that day in the museum, I hoped and prayed that I would never allow myself to see so much suffering without feeling implicated in it.  Once I started my internship, I realized this would be a perfect opportunity to start experiencing that.

I work at an organization that works to reform the policies of the United States toward Latin American countries. Unfortunately, many of these policies, whether they are on trade, immigration, or aid, have many times resulted on what keeps perpetrating the cycle of violence and poverty in these countries. Being an intern here has allowed me to really see the effects of these policies and the impact on the people living there.

Feet on the Ground, but With My Chin Up

    In the months leading up to my semester in Washington DC, whenever I told someone where I was interning they would give multiple reactions.  Either they would be impressed as if that was the last thing they expected to hear (but give me a pessimistic look as if I’m a grown kid who still wants to be an astronaut), or they are mystified in the way people are when trying to connect reality to what they only hear about in movies.  These constant reactions inevitably conditioned me to expect a lot from the internship along with them, building both excitement and anxiety towards that first day.

    I walked into the building and waited in line at the security desk, only to learn that I needed to call up at their office so they could come down and escort me up.  I was greeted by a kind African American lady who got me and the other intern that came in that day pointed in the right direction.  We then met a few others who would help us along the way, and we spent the rest of the morning with a tour of the three floors of the office building we would be working throughout and describing duties we would be fulfilling.  Sorting, filing, copying, scanning, keeping the refrigerators stocked with water and soda, and delivering envelopes between the office and headquarters.  All of this in a typical office building with little of the intimidating technology and monitors that one might anticipate.  Romantic images of something that would wow my peers were reconciled with the reality of administrative duties.

    My first full day saw my perspective find a happy medium.  While monotonous, the task I was assisting in was a physical accomplishment of a goal that had a real constructive purpose with direct applicability, and with that came a sense of purpose far more rewarding than that from layers of policy speculation.  All the while, one of the best people on the subject was informing us about all there was to know, I wanted to absorb it all.  This first full day built a strong bridge for me between the grand scope of purpose and mission of the organization I wish to be a part of and the work I will be doing.  This made me realize that God works gradually and in small ways.  The bits of knowledge I will gradually learn will accumulate, the jobs I do will require more and more responsibility, and the relationships and connections I make will create doors through which God may or may not lead me.  How will I serve?  Through whom will I serve God?  Here, I would serve God through serving both very specific individuals and through that the entire nation.  I have not a clue where God is leading me, but wherever that is, I am going to walk towards it with all the fervor and effort my soul can muster.  The story of how we get there is where we truly become closer to God, and that is what this is all about.

 - JBC