While it is wonderful to be back in Arkansas with familiar friends, a slower lifestyle and easy access to the outdoors, I’m missing the finer points of DC quite a bit.  In DC I could go watch people like Hans Rosling or Jerome Glenn talk almost daily, and TED events were held only minutes from me. Now those things are only available online, and while Hans Rosling is still great in a 20 minute format his hour-and-a-half talks are much more interesting and eye opening.

I also miss the sheer diversity of backgrounds and cultures.  In DC my program of 25 students was represented by Brazil, Vietnam, South Africa, Botswana, India and people from all over the United States.  Were lucky here in Fayetteville to have a better sense of diversity than say, southern Arkansas, but it is still nothing compared to what I experienced in DC.  At my internship site alone over 20 languages were spoken!

But again, there are so many opportunities here in Arkansas that I am glad to be within reach of again, and to be really honest the best parts of DC came back here with me.  DC helped me to realize how many people are out there trying to make a difference for others and how many opportunities I have to work in non-profit.  I definitely would not have traded my time in DC for anything.

If anyone is interested in interning in Washington DC, I would definitely say go for it.  It really is an amazing city with a lot to do and a lot to see.  I do have a couple pieces of advice for you though. Firstly, grab hold of every opportunity you get in DC.  Oftentimes I didn’t go out with friends or go to events because I was too tired or overworked.  Now that I am back to more relaxing I realized I could have suffered a few more hours and not missed as many chances at new and surprising things.  Secondly, be safe.  Too many people got mugged or got themselves into dangerous situations in DC simply because they were not thinking beforehand.  Finally, fight for exactly what you want. If you go to DC with an assertive attitude in the first place, getting exactly the internship placement and program placement you wanted all along, that attitude will carry over and help you throughout the semester.  I unfortunately didn’t pick up that attitude until a few weeks in, therefore missing out on some great opportunities.

My other piece of advice is for anyone our age.  Get out there and take hold of the opportunities you have with your time at the UofA.  There is no reason why you can’t travel abroad or intern in another city for a semester.  The Honors College along with other groups and committees within the UofA will be more than glad to support you monetarily and credit-wise for your endeavors.  Do it now, because once you have kids or a full time job you wont have the opportunity anymore.  Life only gets busier from here on out, that is definitely something I saw in any professional I met in DC.

While in DC, I’m interning with CentroNia, a Spanish-English bi-lingual charter school.  During most of the week I work in their development office and during part of the week I get to help teach kids about plants.  That is four days a week, standard 9-5 (plus a few more hours here and there).

Programming and class fill that other day of the week.  While the three-hour class can be a bit challenging at times, there hasn’t been a single programming I didn’t love. We started off with Jerome Glenn (who started the Millennium Project), and Frank Wiebe (the president of the Millennium Challenge Corporation), which are basically two of my personal heroes.   From there we have met and listened to government representatives, entrepreneurs with independent businesses, and leaders of NGO’s from organizations like Dreams for Kids, PreventionWorks and many more.  I knew that coming here would allow me to hear a lot of cool people speak, but I never knew it would be weekly.

My weekends are then spent with all the wonderful people who have collected here, including my crazy roommates.  Two of my roommates are from Belgium, which I thought at first would automatically make them drastically different than myself and my fellow American roommate, but it only took a few days to realize that I had much more in common with them then I ever will with my American roommate.  My roommate from Philadelphia is interning with the U.S. Marshalls, is furious that he cannot bring even one of the guns he owns to DC, and is incredibly happy that republicans took back the House so that Democrats cannot take away his guns.   Meanwhile, my Belgian roommates and I sit around and discuss why we feel the government, at a low cost, should provide for all public transportation, healthcare and education.  It is odd how it turns out sometimes.  But seriously, all three of them are great guys.  Besides the fact that every one of us is convinced the messy house is not our fault personally, we get along great and are always laughing.

Within my program the list of amazing people grows even larger.  We’ve got people from India, South Africa, Mexico, Bolivia, South Korea, Vietnam, China, Puerto Rico and the list goes on and on.

I think the highlights of my time here in DC would be A. Getting to sit down at Jerome Glenn’s house for 2 hours and just talk about life and all that other cool stuff B.  Getting in free to see the Whitehouse kitchen garden C.  Being here for the Rally to Restore Sanity D. This amazing pesto-ish pasta I made today from about 10 cups of fresh basil we had to get rid of at the garden.

Still, I have to keep this post balance in mentioning some of the downsides of DC.  Just a few days ago one of our good friends (who also happens to be from Arkansas, Little Rock to be exact) was mugged on his way to the grocery store.  Luckily he wasn’t hurt at all, but it is a sad reminder that we can’t all skip down dark alleys alone, no matter how enticing that sounds.

Furthermore, I had more than a bumpy ride three weeks ago when I was applying for my new internship at CentroNia (my old internship was not such a great fit for me, and the good thing about TWC is they will let you switch sites).  I needed to get some tests done to prove I was fit for work, and because my medical insurance doesn’t cover preventative care here in DC I had to run around for the better part of three days to find a place that wouldn’t charge me 500 dollars to do a simple check up.  It’s not as if I was blind to the shortfalls of our healthcare system before, but it’s a completely different situation when you have to spend a few days living the life of those less fortunate then yourself.  Call me crazy, but it seems problematic that those at the bottom rung of our society, those who if they want to succeed have the hardest obstacles to overcome in doing so, need to spend countless hours just to get a medical check up or anything similar.  It’s the same type of problem that women in rural, impoverished communities face.  The world is confused why they don’t just go to school and better their lives, while every day they spend 2-3 hours walking to get water and several more collecting firewood.  I don’t know how to solve all of these problems, and I am certainly not blaming anyone, but it just depresses me every time that a privileged people forget their own reality and challenge the under-privileged to just “do better.”   Sometimes we just aren’t being realistic.

I’ve been interning through The Washington Center in Washington, DC since September 1^st now.  For those of you who haven’t heard about TWC, I’m sure you could contact anyone in the Honors College and they would be glad to get you updated.  It is basically an intern placement program that also offers classes, professional development workshops and incredible lecture series as well as a dorm to live in while in DC and staff to help keep students up to date on civic engagement opportunities, upcoming rallies, and all the great places to go and see while in DC.  It is incredible that our Honors Department has built such a strong relationship with this program because I know of no other way to live in DC for a semester so easily.  If I would have had to contact potential internships, find a place to live and deal with the completely different nature of living in DC alone, I am certain it would have been a much more stressful situation.  Seriously though, check it out if you haven’t heard of it before.

More about DC though!  This city is absolutely crazy and cannot really be understood until you have lived here a while; passing through on a vacation, like in any place, fails to give you true understanding.  It is an eye-opening place in both bad and good ways.  Already I have realized that there is nothing holding me back from being exactly what I want in life.  If you ever worry about having to sell out or give up on your passions to be successful, come to DC and see all the amazing government agencies and NGO’s, for-profits and non-profits that would be more than a perfect fit for you.  It has been especially amazing for me with my passion to be involved in the Not-for-Profit sector, to see just how many opportunities there really are.  At the same time though, a lot of what you will see will depress you.  Our nation’s capitol is crime ridden with parts and pieces often left ignored, and in many ways is an example of the worst of America.  It’s depressing to see underprivileged children in our capitol still not receiving proper nutrition in schools.  If we cannot do it here, where can we do it?  It’s also discouraging to hear, time and time again, people at the top of their fields and organizations using bad science and unsound logic.  It is an unfortunate reminder that there is still a lot of work to be done.

Being in DC is a rewarding but awkward experience for me overall.  It is nice to always have something new to go and see, but I’m missing the finer points of Arkansas so much.  I’m a firm believer that if something is truly great, it will still hold the same shine and sheen no matter how many times you do it.  In Arkansas that truly great experience for me is getting to go hiking, rock climbing and camping almost every weekend.  Again, while DC is exciting, I worry that the Library of Congress couldn’t hold my attention quite as long as a dusty back-road in rural Arkansas.  No one here is outdoorsy!  It’s a town of people who have thrown away shorts and hiking boots for suits and dress shoes.  I’m glad though that there are people like that in this world, because I know for certain that my trips to DC will continue to be short vacation trips from now on.  It’s people who like DC that will get the national work done that I plan to work on at a local or state level.

I must also say that while in DC don’t forget to check out the great restaurants and bars.  DC is a community that thrives on happy hour for networking and relationship building, and because of this they have certainly built some great places to keep people entertained.

For now that is enough I think, I could talk forever about specific experiences, but if I drag on too long this first post I doubt I’ll bring anyone back for my second.