This week, many of my fellow Claremont McKenna College students arrived and I was overjoyed to see familiar faces. Tuesday evening, I met a friend over dinner to catch up, Wednesday, a bunch of us met for dinner on the hill, and Thursday we checked out We the Pizza before heading to the Congressional Baseball Game where the Republicans were quite effectively destroyed by the democrats (we left when it was 14-0). Last night, I had the pleasure of meeting up with my former suitemate at the house she is renting with some of her friends from home. I have never before felt so grown up; not just because we were a bunch of 20-22 year olds on our own in a townhouse in Washington, D.C., but because I finally felt like I discovered what it means to be a mature adult on a typical Friday night in the city.
Sure, there were some of your typical college shenanigans going on, but there were also deep, insightful conversations about the costs and benefits of intervention in Syria, the role of the State department in foreign affairs, legislation involving the agriculture industry, and Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency. Do you spend your Friday nights with people discussing things like this? I walked away from the party amazed at the group of young adults I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with that evening, with the distinct knowledge that in the few hours I was there, I not only learned as much as I would in a normal day of classes at CMC, but I established relationships with people who, some day, will be doing incredible things for this country.
But last night's event was only the most recent of my realizations that the people you surround yourself with dictate who you are. The Congressional Baseball Game on Thursday evening with my fellow CMCers reminded me how lucky I am to be surrounded by such amazing people every day at school and what an incredible, inclusive community it is—they let me sit with them even though I was the only one in the entire section with a red foam finger! Not only was the game a fun event to catch up with people I haven't seen in some time, it was an event filled with who's who of Washington D.C. We didn't know it for most of the game, but a member of the House of Representatives was sitting in front of us the entire time! And of course, my CMC friends were starstruck when members of the House leadership walked by. Most college students would go crazy over people like Lady Gaga, but not CMCers; they ran like children following an ice cream truck toward House Minority Whip Steny Hoyner.
Besides reflecting on the incredible people I have the honor to call my peers this week, I had a chance to thank someone who has served as a mentor and role model for me since my freshman year of high school, someone who meant a lot to me. We all have those people we look up to, who have helped us through hard times, or who have guided us in the right direction and I am a big believer in telling those people how much they mean to me. That little message that says thank you for being who you were and who are now can mean a lot.
The people you surround yourself with are more important than almost anything else in shaping the person you become, especially in your formative, young adult years. Whether those people are your role models, mentors, coaches, friends, or friends of friends you who met one night in a townhouse in Washington D.C., they all play a key role in melding you into you. I have been blessed to be surrounded by some incredibly people in my lifetime and I hope that with the remaining weeks I have here in Washington D.C. I can continue to meet people who inspire and challenge me, even in the most informal of settings.
Below are some photos from my adventures last weekend when I took a tour of the Capitol, went to the National Archives, visited the Old Post Office Pavilion for an amazing view of the city, walked by the White House, visited Ford's Theater and museum, the house where Lincoln died, the International Spy Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.
 |
| Inside the Capitol |
 |
| Reagan at the Capitol building! |
 |
| View from the Old Post Office Pavilion |
 |
| The box in Ford's Theater where Lincoln was shot |
 |
| The bed where Lincoln died |
No comments:
Post a Comment