Days 1-4

WARNING: This entry is extremely long.

Hey all! I can't believe that it is already going on Day 4 that I've been here!! Day one in D.C. was short and sweet. I got into town around 12:30 and spent some time getting settled in and scouting the area. It is beautiful and totally chaotic. I love it! Our building is in Arlington, right next to the Clarendon metro stop. The public transportation system here is so awesome! It is so easy to get around and I feel so safe using it. The housing they provide for us is great, although we don't spend much time in the rooms. Once I got settled Sunday night I went out to grab some dinner with one of the girls from the program. Her name is Jen and she has done several programs through LI (The Leadership Institute) in the past. It was great to eat dinner and pick her brain about the ways of D.C. and the advantages of being involved with LI (which are countless). We then took the metro into D.C. and spent the evening seeing the sites.
Day two was much different. Bright and early, 8:00am to be exact, we all met for breakfast in the LI HQ (abbreviations are apparently a huge thing here). Training started at 9am and went on until after 10pm. Throughout the day we had a few breaks and they also provided us with lunch and dinner. A few of the topics we discussed were "Preparing for Leadership", "Building Your Organization", "Media and PR", and "Mock Elections". Like I said, so many advantages to being involved with this institution. They have trained many of today's leaders. LI is the #1 conservative leader training institution. I am so blessed. Actually, James O'Keefe, the guy who exposed ACORN and Planned Parenthood was a student at LI.
Day 3 we started off by going over our homework, yes homework. We had to write a news release about our "candidate's" mock election win, create flash flyers, and also balloon posters. The balloon posters were probably the hardest part for me because you actually have to have a sense of humor. After a 14 hour day the day before, I had no idea what humor was. We then dove into more lectures and note-taking. My favorite lecture was called "special projects". It was a breakdown of inexpensive, yet very effective, activism projects. They included door-hangers, post-cards, theatrical gestures (think dunk tanks), "grassroots" (think a big hill witha big display), so many cool ideas. All of the lecturers at LI are people who at one point were sitting in my seat. Hearing stories about their success is so inspirational. I constantly fidget in my seat wanting to do everything they talk about.
Later during one of our breaks I talked with the director of my training program about his position. After our discussion I realized that his story centered around grabbing every opportunity the he possibly could. I think that was God's way of telling me that I'm on the right track. After training we went to the DC Young Republicans dinner and I met some awesome people that I will definitely have to stay in contact with! I lobbyed a lot and grabbed tons of business cards. Even had my picture taken a few times!
Today we started to discuss our actual job requirements and what that will involve. It was awesome because we got to meet all of the Regional Field Coordinators. The RFC's (I told you, abbreviations!) will be the people that we actually report to while we're in the field. We also got to look at all of the regions. Unfortunately, Indiana is not a region this year. They said that their presence in IN is strong right now, so there is no need for field reps. That's okay, though. I've been lobbying with the RFCs in the regions that I'm interested in, so that hopefully I will get placed there! We had a lot of them give presentations today about their experiences and they gave us ideas that will be very beneficial while on the job. It was basically a typical training day. Lots of sitting and taking notes, breaks, lunch, dinner, etc. And tonight we are going to go out to a Young Americans for Freedom dinner. More lobbying! Gosh, I love D.C.!!! Well...that's pretty much it for now!