Hello! It’s been a while since my last blog, meaning I have many updates to share. The last time
I wrote, I expressed enthusiasm regarding my full plate of projects that kept me busy and focused. This continues to be my case, something I can’t express enough gratitude for. There became a point, actually, in which I realized I was involved in too many of my office’s projects. During the beginning and end of every week, our team meets together as a whole and discusses our progress on all of our projects. It was at one of these meetings I expressed that I felt overloaded and would like to step back from one project. Later on, my bosses commended me for communicating this, as they understand it takes courage to speak up in that situation. I reasoned it only made sense to let them know, as I would hate to spread myself thin and deliver less than my best effort in my final projects.
Additionally, my supervisors commended me for my leadership in one of the major projects involving all of the policy assistants. They noticed how I naturally filled the gap of leadership the
project required and were very impressed with how I have been guiding the work. As if last week
couldn’t get better, my boss pulled me and a fellow intern into the office on Friday for a moment to invite us to a dinner at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building this upcoming Thursday. We will be attending a farewell dinner with our director and we are more excited than I am able to articulate. The event is supposed to last three to four hours, giving us a chance to mingle, network, and explore the executive building.
While work has kept my team busy, there have definitely been days where it was hard to
concentrate on getting things done due to political upheavals and/or national tragedies. Working in Washington D.C. means current events are inescapable, forcing you to confront a menu of issues not only with your colleagues, but with yourself. All of the gun related violence hit our office hard. What I’ve been truly grateful for and impressed with is the immediate response and action of the department as a whole to offer itself as a resource to all its employees during this time. We have had so many meetings as a department in which safe spaces were offered to everyone to vent and discuss all of these tragedies. It has definitely warmed my heart to see the strong sense of community that is rooted at the Department of Education.
I know I write about this in every blog post, but it’s important to me that I take advantage of all the resources D.C. can offer me while I'm here. I have signed up for several events at think tanks in the city and turned in an application for a D.C. public policy conference last week. I’m hoping these events will allow me to network, as well as expose me to new fields of interests. I definitely still feel like a kid in a candy store, overwhelmed at all the great options that lie ahead of me. I would really like to dig deeper into one of these interests before I leave the city. I often walk to the Lincoln Memorial to have my sentimental and (slightly) unnecessary patriotic moment on those crowded steps. It’s a peaceful way to end my hectic days, and it’s a view I don’t ever see myself getting tired of.
No comments:
Post a Comment