I started moving stuff into my new apartment yesterday. Went and signed the paperwork, so now it's official - I HAVE to find a job down there because I'm living there *lol* It'll be interesting, living with my sister. We're two years apart (and I'm older, though no one ever guesses that when they meet us) and get along much better now that we're not in high school. I never had a problem with her, but according to her I was out to 'steal all of her friends'. Oh the joys of having a sister. I had my own friends, thank you very much. But I digress.
Hopefully, if everything works out, I'll be accepted to the university in October to start with the cohort in January. Now, this is not the same situation as my ill-fated Masters that I was working on last January. Oh no - I realized very quickly that the thing I wanted to do least in the world was public policy. So I left, and good riddance!
Point of advice - never make statements that begin in 'I'll never...'. They inevitably come true. Such as 'I'll never go to a girls school.' What did I do? Proud graduate of a women's college. 'I'll never work in fundraising' (because that's what my dad does). What did I do? My work with the Congressman concerned compliance and fundraising, and I'm also the class gift agent for my college graduating class - aka, I voluntarily send out newsletters begging people to give till it feels good to the ole alma mater. And the newest one - 'I'll never teach!'
I'm currently applying for my Masters of Arts in Teaching. If all goes well, I shall be teaching high school government in no time.
With this new change of focus, I have many well meaning people coming up to me 'Oh, how's your masters going? Do you like DC?' To which I reply 'well, I've changed my focus. I'm going to be a teacher.' Which is usually followed by stunned silence and either 'why the hell would you want to do that?' and 'isn't it more exciting to work in government?'
Sure, it's more exciting. It's so exciting that you don't sleep and work 7 days a week at an average of 12 hours a day, and that's only the part that's AT the office. People who are career civil servants, I have found - and this is merely my own experience - are generally bitter and pessimistic. I can understand, when you've watched policies come and go and nothing gets better. Some jackass gets elected or tapped to head your agency and tries to change what's going on, and you don't want to because what does this yokel know about the EPA that you don't? I am by nature an optimistic person. I am an excited person. I also pride myself in being an openminded person and a positive person. It's very hard to be any of those things when you work in government. I don't want to have to form an opinion on someone just because of which box they checked on their Voter Registration card. Democrats are not automatically good and selfless, Republicans are not automatically stupid hicks, and Green party members are not automatically holdover hippies.
I never got these impressions from the Congressman. He was an intelligent and hardworking man. No, I learned that I needed to judge people from his staff. And I'm just not that type of person. Sure, I have strong opinions. Some very strong opinions. But that doesn't mean that I think everyone who disagrees with me is stupid, or just out for themselves, or insert your favorite mean thing to say about the opposing party here. The joy of America is that you can disagree with me, and please do. But if you're going to disagree with me, back it up. Have a reason to think the way you do, just like I do. Disagreement isn't the worst thing to happen to people, it's ignorance. And in today's world, there is no excuse to be ignorant.
And it's a speech like that railing against something going on on the news that caused my aunt to look at me and tell me, "Rebecca, you should be a teacher." That was the first time I'd thought about it, but it makes sense. I love sharing what I know and what I'm excited about. I enjoyed teaching the few classes I did in undergrad. And I think that students today don't know what's going around them, and more importantly, don't know why they should even care. Which is a shame, because we are so interconnected now - things that happen in Britain, Sudan, the space station - all have an effect on my small little Maryland town. And do you know why people in DC don't give a shit about young people? Because young people don't vote. If people my age would get off their asses and vote, people would care what we have to say. But we don't care about the process, so the process doesn't care about us.
So hopefully, if I'm doing something right, they'll let me into the program and give me the chance to fire at least someone up. Because I'm not going to go back to government until I run for office myself - right now, I'd rather show others the joy of caring.
Hopefully I won't suck at it.
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