My first day of work was today, and it went really well. I spent time getting acclimated to the office and learning more about the details of the Community Conversations project. I also got to hear some Minnesota accents on a conference call with potential CC facilitators, which made me miss my senior year housemate, Mark, and his family, who proudly hail from St. Paul. You know--St. Paul, Minnesooooohta.
Two glitches in the day, both having to do with flimsy cards whose meaning only makes sense to a computer. At the beginning of the day I put $10 on a Metro card. Then when I got to work, I stuck the card in my backpack, next to my cell phone and iPod. Why didn't I know that this was a bad idea? Since when do small electronics de-magnetize cards?
Since always? Oh, cool, SCIENCE.
So I found myself in Farragut North with a de-magnetized card at rush hour, and a very nice station manager wrote a little code on my card so that I could go home to Van Ness-UDC without buying another pass.
Then, I drove to the supermarket and parked in a lot that charged an hourly rate to the general public but not to supermarket customers but I forgot to get my parking ticket validated so I totally paid $3 when I didn't have to because by the time I realized the reality of the whole scenario I was already at the friggin gate pointing to my groceries but still being all, "Yeah, my bad" and shelling out 3 clams to the dude who was very nice but still had to do his job.
Am I really blogging about my supermarket parking ticket validation? Look at me being a housewife in training.
It's thundering and lighteninging outside. Part of me wants to run around in it, but mostly I want to curl up with Mark's copy of Mason & Dixon and fall asleep, so that's what I will do.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
What I'm doing
Yesterday, my mom and I piled into a car with a zip-lock bag of trail mix, two sandwiches (one with Dijon mustard... eew), and all the mix tapes I ever made in elementary school. Mission: drive to DC. Method: avoid the GW; take the Tappan Zee.
We were on our way to my dear friend Laura Zax's house, where, with the extremely gracious hospitality of her parents, I will be staying for the next 6 weeks while I work with AmericaSpeaks on the Our Budget, Our Economy project.
Today, I had my first day of work at the AmericaSpeaks office. Mission: be a nonpartisan force to actively include citizens' voices in governmental decision-making on important public issues. Method: organize meetings that engage large, diverse groups of Americans in discussing and formulating informed opinions about a key issue; report findings to elected officials so that actual policy will reflect actual citizens' needs.
I first worked with AmericaSpeaks in Louisiana, where a team of organizers was working to empower Gulf Coast residents who had been affected by hurricanes Ike, Katrina, and Gustav and continued to face the threats of debilitating hurricanes. I talked to people who had just moved out of FEMA trailers. I saw first-hand the effect of hurricane-caused homelessness on New Orleans residents. I served Danny Glover a po-boy at a jazz club in the Tremé (true story for another time). Most importantly, our team of organizers put together the Rebuilding Lives Summit, a 21st Century Town Meeting that took place in January of 2009.
A what?
A 21st Century Town Meeting is a large conference that AmericaSpeaks has been using and perfecting since the organization's inception in 1995. When state or national government leaders are faced with tough decisions on issues that effect many citizens, AmericaSpeaks adeptly organizes diverse, representative groups of Americans to deliberate on what needs to be done. Volunteers facilitate conversations at smaller tables, individuals vote on issues using wireless keypads and send their opinions via laptop to a central data team, and the aggregated results of everyone's conversations are projected on a large screen. This way, literally hundreds or thousands can actively participate in the same conversation at the same time, and ultimately the process produces real data about citizens' priorities.
Our Budget, Our Economy will utilize 6 of these Town Meetings in major cities across the country, in addition to smaller meetings in key congressional districts and smaller communities. I'm working with the Community Conversations team to recruit and support organizers and facilitators who can run these smaller meetings on June 26, the date of Our Budget, Our Economy.
I believe that AmericaSpeaks' approach to citizen involvement has the potential to positively change the way government officials approach policy decisions, so I'm excited to have the opportunity to work with this group in a new capacity at their central office in DC.
I'm here! I'm ready to work! Let's do some civic engagement!
We were on our way to my dear friend Laura Zax's house, where, with the extremely gracious hospitality of her parents, I will be staying for the next 6 weeks while I work with AmericaSpeaks on the Our Budget, Our Economy project.
Today, I had my first day of work at the AmericaSpeaks office. Mission: be a nonpartisan force to actively include citizens' voices in governmental decision-making on important public issues. Method: organize meetings that engage large, diverse groups of Americans in discussing and formulating informed opinions about a key issue; report findings to elected officials so that actual policy will reflect actual citizens' needs.
I first worked with AmericaSpeaks in Louisiana, where a team of organizers was working to empower Gulf Coast residents who had been affected by hurricanes Ike, Katrina, and Gustav and continued to face the threats of debilitating hurricanes. I talked to people who had just moved out of FEMA trailers. I saw first-hand the effect of hurricane-caused homelessness on New Orleans residents. I served Danny Glover a po-boy at a jazz club in the Tremé (true story for another time). Most importantly, our team of organizers put together the Rebuilding Lives Summit, a 21st Century Town Meeting that took place in January of 2009.
A what?
A 21st Century Town Meeting is a large conference that AmericaSpeaks has been using and perfecting since the organization's inception in 1995. When state or national government leaders are faced with tough decisions on issues that effect many citizens, AmericaSpeaks adeptly organizes diverse, representative groups of Americans to deliberate on what needs to be done. Volunteers facilitate conversations at smaller tables, individuals vote on issues using wireless keypads and send their opinions via laptop to a central data team, and the aggregated results of everyone's conversations are projected on a large screen. This way, literally hundreds or thousands can actively participate in the same conversation at the same time, and ultimately the process produces real data about citizens' priorities.
Our Budget, Our Economy will utilize 6 of these Town Meetings in major cities across the country, in addition to smaller meetings in key congressional districts and smaller communities. I'm working with the Community Conversations team to recruit and support organizers and facilitators who can run these smaller meetings on June 26, the date of Our Budget, Our Economy.
I believe that AmericaSpeaks' approach to citizen involvement has the potential to positively change the way government officials approach policy decisions, so I'm excited to have the opportunity to work with this group in a new capacity at their central office in DC.
I'm here! I'm ready to work! Let's do some civic engagement!
Hello, new blog.
Reunion and Commencement weekend at Wesleyan contained more pleasant moments than I had expected. I've heard that during a large, meticulously planned wedding, the bride experiences the event as though through a fog, going through the motions but not feeling like a fully engaged participant. I was expecting the days surrounding my graduation to feel similar--somewhat unreal, mildly overwhelming, perhaps even frenzied and stressful.
That hazy, unreal feeling did set in the instant I plopped back into my designated white folding chair on Andrus field after receiving my diploma frame and shaking President Roth's hand. For the rest of Sunday and all of Monday, I found myself in a strange, unsettled, slightly dumbfounded and detached place, as every little action took on a vastly profound meaning. Each hug shared with a classmate was part of a process of saying goodbye. Each desktop trinket I placed into a box would be hidden from human eyes until the unknown time when I would unpack boxes in a new apartment. Each bite of post-ceremony cheese and cracker would metabolize to provide my body with energy for a post-Wesleyan life.
Am I being melodramatic? Mmm-hmm.
Before that pivotal point when I was officially done "graduating," some invisible well of adrenaline was mostly succeeding in staving off feelings of confusion and sadness. The university did a good job of organizing events for graduating seniors and their families, and I found myself genuinely enjoying the opportunity to meet or reconnect with my friends' families at cocktail mixers and all-campus luncheons.
I was particularly glad to see my friend Miles' parents, Dorian and Elyse, whom I initially met when Miles and I lived on the same hall in our first year at Wes. Because I hadn't seen them for over three years and because I come from a particularly forgetful family (common questions include: Where are my keys? What did we have for dinner three nights ago? What's our great aunt's name?), I was pleasantly surprised that they remembered me and my relationship to Miles. Dorian and Elyse were immediately warm, recalling good times in freshman year with Miles and gently inquiring about my plans for the future. I was again pleasantly surprised that they had heard of (and remembered) AmericaSpeaks, the nonprofit organization where I will be working for the next six weeks.
I shouldn't have been surprised that they knew about AS--both Dorian and Elyse have made philanthropy a central focus in their careers, most notably starting two magazines and a social networking group to help people dedicated to social change learn about and connect with groups advancing good causes. They were familiar with the AmericaSpeaks mission, and they offered some valuable advice about keeping tabs on my first foray into the world and into a job in public policy: keep a blog.
So here I am! This blog will be about my life post-graduation and the experimental experiences that will happen over the coming months. I hope that I'll be able to inform loved ones and friends about what I'm up to, and I also hope to communicate the challenges, frustrations, successes, and failures that come along with this big transition.
For a name, I settled on "Figuring About," which is kind of like the phrase "figuring it out," but without the article "it" because I don't really know what exactly "it" is that I'm trying to "figure out." "Figuring it out" implies a central problem or question that needs to be explored and solved--the "it" in this verbal equation. As I see it, I don't have a central problem or question because I haven't explored enough yet. Instead, I need to explore the multiple questions and problems that will help me define who I am and where I'm going. I'm certainly figuring...but not about a specific "it." I'm figuring about a bunch of things--I'm generally "figuring about."
Onward!
That hazy, unreal feeling did set in the instant I plopped back into my designated white folding chair on Andrus field after receiving my diploma frame and shaking President Roth's hand. For the rest of Sunday and all of Monday, I found myself in a strange, unsettled, slightly dumbfounded and detached place, as every little action took on a vastly profound meaning. Each hug shared with a classmate was part of a process of saying goodbye. Each desktop trinket I placed into a box would be hidden from human eyes until the unknown time when I would unpack boxes in a new apartment. Each bite of post-ceremony cheese and cracker would metabolize to provide my body with energy for a post-Wesleyan life.
Am I being melodramatic? Mmm-hmm.
Before that pivotal point when I was officially done "graduating," some invisible well of adrenaline was mostly succeeding in staving off feelings of confusion and sadness. The university did a good job of organizing events for graduating seniors and their families, and I found myself genuinely enjoying the opportunity to meet or reconnect with my friends' families at cocktail mixers and all-campus luncheons.
I was particularly glad to see my friend Miles' parents, Dorian and Elyse, whom I initially met when Miles and I lived on the same hall in our first year at Wes. Because I hadn't seen them for over three years and because I come from a particularly forgetful family (common questions include: Where are my keys? What did we have for dinner three nights ago? What's our great aunt's name?), I was pleasantly surprised that they remembered me and my relationship to Miles. Dorian and Elyse were immediately warm, recalling good times in freshman year with Miles and gently inquiring about my plans for the future. I was again pleasantly surprised that they had heard of (and remembered) AmericaSpeaks, the nonprofit organization where I will be working for the next six weeks.
I shouldn't have been surprised that they knew about AS--both Dorian and Elyse have made philanthropy a central focus in their careers, most notably starting two magazines and a social networking group to help people dedicated to social change learn about and connect with groups advancing good causes. They were familiar with the AmericaSpeaks mission, and they offered some valuable advice about keeping tabs on my first foray into the world and into a job in public policy: keep a blog.
So here I am! This blog will be about my life post-graduation and the experimental experiences that will happen over the coming months. I hope that I'll be able to inform loved ones and friends about what I'm up to, and I also hope to communicate the challenges, frustrations, successes, and failures that come along with this big transition.
For a name, I settled on "Figuring About," which is kind of like the phrase "figuring it out," but without the article "it" because I don't really know what exactly "it" is that I'm trying to "figure out." "Figuring it out" implies a central problem or question that needs to be explored and solved--the "it" in this verbal equation. As I see it, I don't have a central problem or question because I haven't explored enough yet. Instead, I need to explore the multiple questions and problems that will help me define who I am and where I'm going. I'm certainly figuring...but not about a specific "it." I'm figuring about a bunch of things--I'm generally "figuring about."
Onward!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
