Days Three and Four

"Often we can achieve an even better result when we stumble yet are willing to start over, when we don't give up after a mistake, when something doesn't come easily but we throw ourselves into trying, when we are not afraid of appearing perfectly polished." - Sharon SalzbergThis seems to be a fitting quote for the last journal while still here at the RNC.Being my last journal, I would also like to asses my goals that I laid out for myself and analyze how well I met them. Originally my goals were the following: Working with the ORP, my dream scenario would be to stand with the Ohio Delegation on the floor while listening to John McCain's acceptance speech. I would like to learn more about lobbying/special interest groups and what their roles are in politics. I would also like to meet as many important people from around the United States as possible. I plan on going to the hotels for some delegations and shaking hands of people and swapping business cards.This did not work out as planned, but I did partially complete some of the goals. I have yet to see if I will be listening to McCain's acceptance speech in the hall, but I am inclined to say that I probably will not be able to because the reporters for the CQ will want to be inside the arena so they can write their articles about the speech. As far as learning more about lobbyists and special interest groups, I did learn a considerable amount, though I still don't know their exact role. Mickey Edwards, Anthony Moretti (my faculty advisor) and a few others talked about this with me at one time or another throughout my two weeks here and gave me distinct perspectives on lobbyists from a Senator's point of view, a journalist's point of view, and from a far off perspective. As far as meeting important people, I have touched on a lot of that through my daily blogs, but I did forget to mention that I met the former Virginia Governor who is running for US Senator, Jeff Beatty of Massachusetts who is running against John Kerry for his Senate seat, Mike Riley (editor for the CQ), and a couple other lesser known politicians and media personnel. I have also swapped business cards with many of these people. As far as going to delegations hotels, I have not done that because my internship lasts from early morning to late at night. Overall, I grade my experience here as an A+, but my goal accomplishing a C. However, I think that my goals changed starting Sunday morning, but I never redid them so I don't have as accurate a goal grade. My goals while I was working at the CQ was to be the best possible intern and accomplish my tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible. I also wanted to get on the floor or in the arena at least once (I've gone three times) and see some of the more famous people around, a subject I've discussed frequently over the past couple days. In this sense, I give myself a B+ for accomplishing my goals. As far as how my days have been going, I've been having a lot of fun for the most part. There are few parts of the job that are not very glorious but for the most part, this internship has been amazing and I feel as though I've learned a lot about how things operate in the real world. 

Technorati Tags: