My First Blog
My first days in Washington DC were a real eye opener for me as I found myself among one of eighteen interns in a process of adjusting to a brand new milieu. Housed in the Ivory Towers on George W. campus, I was in incredible living quarters with two roommates by the names of Austin Slaymaker and Adam Dovens. I must admit, I was very reticent, as I am with most people whom I meet for the first time, but they were individuals of charismatic qualities who took gratitude in my company and happily joined me in our shopping spree for our room’s necessities on Memorial Day.
During my three days of orientation, there was much to be elated about. On the first day of orientation I found out that at least half of the interns had a practical knowledge of the game of chess and that David Hale had a profound respect for the game. This led to me playing four people in our room on Tuesday night. The following day, I was fortunate to be paired up with Day Al Mohamed, a very understanding and sincere mentor who understood what it was like to be an introvert in the world of politics and government. I will never forget when she told me to make friends to extroverts because an extroverted friend does the job of promoting you to other people. For many years, I have worked on achieving personal growth and I have no doubt that my friendship with Day it will enable me to come up with other strategies to address them. By the time Thursday came around, I was very thrilled when I was given to opportunity to explore my working destination at capital hill. After a short visit to my job location, I was given a succinct but significant summary of the history of the disabled movement. The movement, as I later found out, was in a state of contention, with lobbying groups for different disabled organizations fighting each other over the necessary funding for their programs and policies. People with different disabilities find it very difficult to see eye to eye and this lack of cooperation stands as a painful bulwark to the favorable legislation that would benefit all people with disabilities. One of these days I hope to be one of these individuals who will unite all of these factions in to one powerful organization, under one voice and one goal; “the improvement of the lives and opportunities of people with disabilities.”
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