Wrapping Up

So, my internship is wrapping up, which means this blog will be winding down. I'd like to end on a final and, in my opinion, rather inspiring note:

Lunch was probably the highlight of my day. I ate with with a very influential Washingtonian who didn't know what he wanted to do with his life until he was 34. He called himself at 34 a "kid"--just think of being a kid at 34, it seems so ancient! He fell into his current job through a serious of flukes of fate and accidents, and it's comforting to know that road can be curvy and rough, but if we do our best it will be rewarding in the end. Setbacks are more like adventures, and I really do think "bad luck" is just a way of redirecting us. If we make the best of every situation--how can we go wrong?

I came to Washington to try and figure out what I wanted to do. I started this blog to record some of those thoughts, and I rediscovered how much I love writing. Working in a high-stress environment, I've been very lucky to be around people who truly enjoy their job, realize it's not everything, and have had amazing, crazy, and inspirational career paths. You can have fun and do good things all in once--and end up 600 miles from where you started too.

I'll leave you with Conan, I'm not sure I could sum up what I've learned any better:

All I ask of you is one thing, and I'm asking this particularly of young people who watch: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism- for the record, it's my least favorite quality, it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen. I'm tell you, amazing things will happen.

Bonding with your Boss, Part II

Visit them when they are stuck late at work and probably bored.

HCR

It's been a long time...

...but I had to personally ensure Health Care Reform was going to pass. No really, I did. I think the fact that it didn't get through until I came to DC make it clear just how much this city needed my leadership.

Anyway, all the gossip tells me that when Nancy Pelosi (legit one of my favorite people, my first daughter will be name Nancy. Or Hillary. Nancy Hillary? To much?) took H.R. 3590, aka Health Care Reform to the floor, she didn't have the 216 votes necessary to "pass the damn bill." But with a little luck and a hell of a lot of confidence, she muscled it through what the founders thought of as the more "rowdy" chamber (it was rowdy on Sunday night!).

Today I ate lunch with a CoS. He said he's never had a plan--and here he is senior staffer to a senior member of the majority party. I'm not saying I would ever want to be a CoS, I can only take so much stress. But the idea that it's okay to not have a plan, that it can all work out.

I know a lot of people who don't necessarily have a plan. We might have sketches, or ideas, but we don't have a plan. I dare say we're smart enough not to plan, we know every thing can get effed up in the end.

But if Health Care Reform can fly by the seat of its pants, than there's not reason we all can't either. As long as we keep the what we like in sight, than like Health Care Reform, with a little luck and a lot of confidence, we can make it too.

Fridayyyy

I like Fridays. There's always some sort of clusterfuck when every is trying to figure out their plans for the night. For a while, everything is up in the air. And then things calm down and come together.

I will say one thing: I'm looking forward to going back to 4 (or less!) day weeks in college. It is SO nice to have very little to do on Fridays. I spent my Fridays this fall working, but it was still a break from class, a break from thinking.

Ironically, I had a very intellectual conversation at lunch about climate change. Some people have the coolest, craziest career paths. Like this guy--a former Math professor working in envrionmental policy sector. This guy changed jobs a decent amount, and it just seemed like he had a very rich career. Who doesn't want that?

It made me realize that I can do a lot of different things. I can change my mind. I can fast track to one thing, but that doesn't mean I work in something completely different 30 years down the line. For someone who likes a decent amount of uncertainty and tends to dislike committment, that's really refreshing.

So I'm zen: tonight will be good. My career, whatever the heck it is, will be awesome.