I first arrived in Wheaton, MD to my host family’s house last Wednesday night. It was a very long drive, but the hours seemed shorter than expected. Fortunately, I didn’t run into any serious traffic issues, though a great deal of construction. As I was stuck in a traffic jam at one point, I was listening to Family Life Radio. It was a morning program and they were talking about some positive pro-life efforts. I was happy to hear so many good things about the pro-life movement on air. So, I decided to call in. I wasn’t expecting to be put on air; I merely wanted to thank them. However, after speaking with them, I heard the interview aired about 10 minutes after I hung up the phone. I was pretty excited.
Once I arrived in MD I had a good amount of time to settle in and get to know my host mom, Doris Gordon. She started Libertarians for Life and has quite a story! I recommend you visit her website at: www.L4L.org. There are many interesting articles on there that would be very beneficial to read.
I had a nice opportunity to visit with an old friend Thursday night and we watched the Red Wings game. Hopefully it won’t be a one time thing in the coming weeks!
My roommate, Kate, arrived Saturday night. It had rained the first few days I was there, so I was anxious to get out of the house. So, I ventured out with Kate and her friend, John who lives right off of Capitol Hill. It was a fun night on the town.
Sunday truly began the craziness of the week. Kate and I went to noon Mass at one of the local parishes: St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. To our surprise, it was a graduation Mass for the parish school 8th grade class. So, that was an interesting experience… J Later that evening we went to the SFLA (Students for Life of America) BBQ in Arlington at the SFLA office courtyard. We had the privilege of meeting many of the people we would be working with: the SFLA staff, the other interns and some of the staffers from Feminists for Life and some other organizations.
Monday was our first day “on the job.” We did not venture out to our respective offices, but instead met up at the SFLA office for training. We had some very… rigorous… training for the first half of the day. In the afternoon we went to Capitol Hill for the Conservative Leadership Seminar at the Capitol Building. There were some very interesting speakers such as Bay Buchanan, Congressman John Shadegg and Liz Cheney. While the final speech was being given, a Capitol police officer entered the room. He began looking around for the person in charge and told us all to evacuate the building immediately. He gave us no reason, just that we all had to leave right then. We later found out that there was a suspicious package in the entrance of the building. After our evacuation we went out to dinner at an Italian Bistro several blocks from Capitol Hill. It was a quaint, privately owned restaurant. It was a fun, but exhausting first day.
Tuesday began our internship rotations. I start out with SFLA for the first three weeks. Two other interns start at that office with me while the other interns are at places such as the Susan B. Anthony List, Feminists for Life, and Congressional Offices on Capitol Hill. My first day I worked on several different projects, learned a lot and felt very productive! We then went to dinner at a pizzeria in the Ballston Mall. It was a lot of fun.
Today was my second day working in the SFLA office. I continued some of my projects from yesterday and had a great opportunity to be interviewed on National Pro-Life Radio. I also got to go to another speaker event from noon until 1pm. Professor Mike Novak spoke about Social Justice – its roots and how society has skewed the meaning to conform it to a liberal society. He referenced the encyclical “Rerum Novarum” by Pope Leo XIII. He also referenced Pope John Paul II on Social Justice. It was overall a great talk and I’m very glad I took my lunch break (and then some) to go listen to him. The rest of the day at the office went smoothly and I went out for dinner with the two other interns that work with me in the SFLA office, Rachana and Billy.
Overall it has been a good first week in Washington. I have not gotten lost on the metro. I have accidentally gotten off early on the bus… but I learned from that right away. I have gotten lost walking through D.C. twice, but quickly found my way – either by asking a random stranger or calling a friend… once again, I learned very quickly from that and won’t be making the same mistake twice. I am learning my way around D.C. and am starting to truly settle in. I now have the confidence that if God ever ends up calling me to live here, I wouldn’t be too upset about it. J I am really looking forward to all that D.C. has to offer this summer. Intern seminars, speaker events and dinners pop up all the time. My weeks are steadily becoming very busy, but I certainly don’t mind! This weekend I may be a bit of a tourist and visit Mount Vernon, the Spy Museum and the Basilica. That is my agenda so far… which is of course always subject to change – as is life in D.C.! One thing I find quite humorous though is that I have acquired the ability to decipher the tourist from the resident. It seems that if you are wearing a t-shirt and jeans on any weekday – most times you are deemed a tourist… I have never seen so many people in business clothes in one city – myself included, haha.
Now, with that, I think I should probably head off to bed. It will be another long day at the office tomorrow! Tomorrow night is our SFLA volunteer night, so we’ll be there until at least 9 p.m. I will try to send out updates at least once a week. I hope all is well back home!
For LIFE!
Sheri
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