The first two weeks of my job working for the DC Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped has consisted of orientation. You see, in addition to me there has been another intern at that library for this time. He permanently works Reference at the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped and has spent these past two weeks learning how a regional library works. So for his benefit and mine, the DC Library for the Blind set up an orientation where we would shadow library workers and attend meetings, as well as learning the how-tos of basic tasks. My current project is very fun: I’ve been transcribing mountains of business cards into Excel files, thereby making searching out contacts much easier for my coworkers.
I have also had exciting “extracurriculars”. On Thursday evening, I went to the HSC Foundation Advocacy of Disabilities Award ceremony on the invitation of my mentor, Mat McCollough. The HSC Foundation is a worthy cause for its efforts to help youth and many other related charitable activities. All during the social mixer that preceded the actual awards ceremony, we watched slideshows of the plans and design for the HSC Foundation’s new Youth Transition Center. In addition to Mat McCullough, many disability rights activists of our day where there, many of whom we know of. It was a social and business networking frenzy! Not to mention the food was excellent!
The highlight of my week however, was getting to see my father, Donald Frazier. For those of you who do not know, I am from Ithaca, New York and go to school in Buffalo. My father lives in the Denver metro area of Colorado. Indeed, although I am from the Boston area, I lived in Boulder, Colorado for many years in between that time and my current residency. I usually get to see my father when I visit Colorado every summer. Clearly that is out of the cards this summer, so I am very glad that he came to visit me. On Wednesday night, we went out for supper in Georgetown and caught up with each other. On Thursday, he took me to lunch and I gave him a tour of my workplace. And on Saturday, I finished up my earlier trip to Mount Vernon—which he had never been to—and spend the best father-son bonding time that I can imagine!
It is 10:50 and time to get to bed. This weekend was the culmination of Capital Pride. I am a gay American, and although I am not at all a religious person, I believe that we are created in this universe to be free to be ourselves. I will leave you with a quote from Dolly Parton’s “Travelin’ Through”, the theme song to “Transamerica”.
“God made me for a reason,
and nothing is in vain,
redemption comes in many shapes,
and many kinds of pain.”
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