Landmark learning experience- grab a cup of coffee, it’s long

It has been over a month now since I have started working in Congressman Payne’s office, and I can honestly say I have learned more than I ever thought I would. I’ve been reflecting on what skills I have gained so far as an intern (or as a fellow as the program likes to call it) on the Hill. Sometimes I get jealous of my roommates that do not get off of work until 8:00pm at night because at least that means they are needed for some kind of work. Other times I am thankful that my office is more laid back, which creates a minimal stress environment.

I have learned things I did not even realized I learned. The best way to explain my experience here is to compare it to a young child growing up under the supervision of loving parents. When a child is young they do not realize how much they have learned from their parents. They don’t know that the way they talk, the way they walk, what they perceive as normal, the core beliefs they have, or even what they believe to be truth or reality is a direct imitation of their parents.

I feel like the time I sit and reflect is like my rebellious teenage years, where I see that people in politics (or the parents of the children) do not know as much as I thought they did. Not that they are not brilliant and talented at what they do, but the clouded dome over my small reality is removed and a wider reality is revealed. It is when teenages learn that their parents are human and they make mistakes. It is even when they start to even see a few of the reflections of their parents in themselves. It has not been a rebellious reflection time, but a time where I realize that these leaders, diplomats, CEOs, dignitaries, advocates of change, human rights activists, distinguished experts that they were all at one point at my stage of life. I see a bit of them in me. I see that they do not hold all of the answers, and actually that a lot of them seek to raise up the next generation to find more answers.

I have been inspired that I am not just a bottom of the totem pole intern who will go back to school, graduate, and then find myself working at a Starbucks because I am with out any technical skills. It finally hit me that the before empty saying that “I am the next generation of________” and you fill in the blank is true; it is inevitable. All of these successful, powerful, inspiring, people I look up to out of admiration or mere authority will die. They do not last forever. Two of the most important concepts one has to possess and grow in his or her life are the tools of communication and discipleship. One will never have a legacy without having communicated that which made him or her great, and anything praiseworthy outlasts a lifetime. This means we better get good at training up people behind us. This is not an easy task. It takes patience, commitment to something beyond one’s own good, and it takes humility. The disciples have to be inspired that they can carry on that which has come before them, and the trainers have to have humility in leadership to recognize it is not about them.

Now, I am passed the teenage years and on to the time parents long for in their children’s lives, the times where we call and say “Ohhh, now I know why you told me that all those years.” I am there in the analogy and in reality. In the office I get so excited when I listen to a hearing or a briefing and remember the lectures my Winthrop professors gave me on the same issues. I love making the connections from the text books I read in class to the real live world. I should stop here to say that Winthrop University has really served me well and will continue to for another semester. I am learning the true meaning of diplomatic speech. I am learning that I am not the only one in the dark about things such as the congressional budget process. I realized that is why text books and professors are amazing (they give you the break down of these complicated issues). I am learning how to ask questions even when what I’ve just heard sounds like a flawless presentation. I am learning that in order to really process something you have to force yourself to look at the presentation in a way that drives you to question it. I’m learning that you are alway giving off an impression, and that impression can build up or destroy the people around you without you even knowing it. I’m learning that as much as a smile can bring great opportunity and a short tone can destroy a possible relationship.

I will end with one last story of inspiration that tells of my graduation to the adult world. I am so inspired by the people I meet everyday. I wonder how they got to where they are and what regrets they might have. One person I have not had the pleasure of meeting but have read some of his story is Muhammad Yunnus. He is the man who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his social business concept or micro-lending. He breaks down how the government cannot solve all of the social problems of a nation and neither can NGOs or even the private sector because of lack of resources and/or incomplete development structure (you need to crack his book Creating a World Without Poverty).

I am reading his business plans for the Grameen Bank, and I am so inspired how this man started such a successful combat against poverty. After reading a good bit of his breakdown of his plan I decide to look at the book sleeve to the short biography of his life. After two sentences I put the book down and a light went off in my head. “..He was educated at Dhaka University and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University.”

This may not sound like much, but I have had the opportunity to meet and become good friends with many Lantos Fellows. Lantos Fellows are students from abroad that are working in Congress thanks to Tom Lantos’ Fellowship. He was (he died last week) the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, who started this program. Of these Lantos Fellows, a few of them have also received Fulbright scholarships to study at such universities as Georgetown and Harvard. It just so happens that I sit around with these fellows and discuss the progress of the EU and the horrors of the World Bank in between watching episodes of the Office. These are my peers (oh so very smart ones). It hit me, that these people I hang out with are on the same path as Yunus who I so greatly admire. I am here in DC discussing the future of our world with future leaders of the world, and I do not say that lightly because I once shook off the phrase “future leaders.”

I realized that it is my responsibility that with every new opportunity I receive that I must continue to move forward. I cannot give up or settle with what I am comfortable with because I have an obligation to my generation to do the most that I can with the resources I have. I don’t think I have gained an inflated head. I also don’t think I am a special chosen person. I actually feel very inadequate for anything other then minding my own business, but if I know anything about God’s word I know that he did not call me to be in this world to look out for my own life. I cannot be afraid of failure. I think that is where trust in God comes into play. We serve a God who deserves all credit for his ability to do “immeasurably more than all we could ask or image according to his power that is at work with in us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen”