Saturday, January 9, 2010

Hello three day weekend!

My first week of interning has come and gone quickly. At the same time I feel like I've been here a month already with the insane amount of things that have been going on.

First of all, work is intense. There's always a substantial pile of things to get done, and with each of those tasks there are five million new latin words to learn and just as many rules in legal proceedings to familiarize myself with. Thank goodness for Brittney, a patient boss, and the other attorneys at the office. I would be lost without them.

Work, as tough as it can be at moments, continues to push and challenge me in ways I'd never imagined; I LOVE IT. The legal practice is extremely rewarding and invigorating. Every day we spend our time observing, reasoning, deliberating, analyzing, thinking, creating, and using our brains. I like to think that what we've been doing requires a sound moral compass and good judgment. Lots of decisions are to be made and sometimes that's difficult. But wow, I love this.


This is the view from the who-knows-how-many-stories-high-I-think-I'm-going-to-pass-out-because-I'm-afraid-of-heights elevator in the Old Post Office Pavilion. I think it took ten minutes just to get to the top floor. The view from the tower was pretty cool though--we could see the whole DC metro area

Anyway, on Friday I went shopping with my main man Obama. I ended up buying some postcards; don't think I've ever written a postcard before, come to think of it.

Speaking of Illinois politicians, we went to Ford's Theater today. They had a great museum down in the basement of the building. It's amazing to think how much there is to know about just one person, or one event. It seems that everything we see has so much depth to it; there's a rich history to just about anything here in DC, even the sidewalk.

We also had a chance to visit the Holocaust Museum for several hours. I was floored. I had not anticipated such a moving experience, and it was an experience that changed my life. At the end of the exhibit there's a big room with a vaulted glass ceiling and walls lined with candles. Near the center of the room there is a small flame situated under the words of a scripture in Deuteronomy 4:9 that say, "Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons." How appropriate, I thought. With all the crap happening right now in Darfur, and with the memory of thousands murdered in Rwanda and Bosnia, how important it is to remember, and learn, and make sure that today the horrors of genocide, or any other ethnic/racial violence, are never able to destroy innocent lives.
Anyway. Sorry to end on that note. It was just such an unforgettable experience, and it's hard not to feel inspired to be a better citizen of the world after that.

1 comment:

  1. All I'd like to say is that I hope you got one of those blinged out wife beaters that says change on it from the Obama store! Haha! Keep up the posts, you're awesome!

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