I apologize for the slackness of the updates. I got back late last night as Crystal was able to reserve tickets for us for the opening night movie showing of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Needless to say it was packed. The movie was extra cool, just because we were at the Smithsonian and in Washington, D.C.
Great family movie. Nice job Ben Stiller.
Anyhow besides that, yesterday was the end of the seminar portion of this trip. We heard from a distinguished panel of former Congressmen in one of the meeting rooms of The House of Representatives and ended with a tour of the Capital building. It was a rushed tour, as our meeting in the morning ran over and all the students were exhausted mentally and physically. It was a consensus: we all just wanted to eat by the time 2:30 rolled around.
Funny story about Brian that will probably give an insight as to just how strenuous the seminar is. Ok, so if you’ve ever been to a subway you know you have your little farecard and before you get onto the platform you stick it into the turnstile (most of these are electronic now) and you go through.
Well, Brian, an intelligent guy, for some reason takes out his farecard and attempts to use it, as we are about to go down an Escalator! What in the world?! I thought to myself , “Poor Brian, that guy is exhausted.”
Haha. I still laugh when I think about it. Get some sleep today bro.
At the end of the seminar, each of our small groups gave a short presentation. I represented our small group and summarized what we got out of the seminar with 3 universal concepts for success in Washington and in life (I went into more detail, but I’ll spare the readers here):
1. Honestly expressing yourself – In the long term you can only be successful if you are true to yourself, your values, and what your “perceived injustice” is.
2. Seek first to understand, then to be understood – Take time to listen to all sides of story. In Washington, people tend to like to talk more than to listen. Listening allows you to clarify your own ideas better.
3. Be resilient – Everyone from Ralph Nader, to Elizabeth Edwards to Lorraine Miller (Clerk of The U.S. House of Representatives) resonated this truth. It’s about hard work.
One inspiring story came from one of the students, Bernard, a man from Cambodia and a naturalized citizen of the United States. As a 9 year old boy, his whole family was killed in war. He travelled 11 months through the jungle to get to freedom. He said “I was in hell and when I finally became a citizen of the United States I was in heaven.”
Wow. How lucky we are to be free. Many people have fought so hard for it.
