Lobbying on the HILL

(closest i got to Obama)

I came home and went to bed, around 7 p.m. and I just now woke up. Wow, its been a while since I've slept for 15 hours. It makes me feel like a teenager. :)

So the amazing trip:

The whole trip was such a learning experience, I met new people, learned new ideas and tried lots of new things. Everyday of the conference we learned about certain subjects, leadership, communication, ect. We had the nights free, which is when we roamed DC. I absolutely adore DC, beautiful city. Thursday we lobbied on the hill, and oh, jesus, was that nerve racking.

We're lobbying for a bill called the R.E.A.L. act which would be the first ever federally funded comprehensive sex education. We were asking for 50 million, abstinence currently gets 200 million. So, we just wanted a small portion. This act is amazing, its still abstinence based, but it teaches kids about everything else... I talked with a member of Tom Cole's staff, and she was pretty nice, and James Inhofe's staff, and he was a douche. He was checking his blackberry every five minutes, and we were only in there for about 10 min.



Then the icing on the cake was actually meeting with Tom Coburn. There were 4 girls present for this meeting, and only Molly (choice USA staff) and I spoke. The other girls froze. I don't blame them, he was very intimidating. He actually pulled out the pocket constitution within 5 minutes of our meeting, asking us if we were familiar with it. It was ridiculous. Essentially he wouldn't vote for the bill because he believes its a state matter, and not a national matter. Apparently, he didn't vote for the abstinence bill either. At the end of it, I asked for a picture.



I feel very proud to have met with my leaders on this issue. It's something that I'm passionate about, and feel like this is where I'm supposed to be in life, almost as if I've found my calling.