OUT ON THE HILL is the official blog of the Victory Congressional Interns. Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of LGBTQ+ Victory Institute. Learn more about the internship at victoryinstitute.org/vci.
I can’t believe we’re coming up on the last week of our internship! Time has really flown by and I can’t even begin to adequately express how much I’m going to miss my cohort. This is a family I’m not ready to part with, but I’m confident we will continue to stay in touch with one another and for that, I am thankful. I am really appreciative of my cohort and I cannot wait to see the amazing things they will all accomplish in life.
These past seven weeks working on the Hill has provided me invaluable insight and perspective on my role as a citizen, and a future public servant here in America. From writing memos, to constituent letters and resolutions, to attending a wide variety of briefings and hearings, working on the Hill is an experience I will never forget. The skills I have been able to learn and expand on are ones that I will utilize throughout my life, regardless of the career I ultimately decide to pursue.
This past week I was able to attend a LGBT Congressional Staff Association event where my Representative, Representative Craig, was invited to speak. I attended the event with some other LGBT staffers in my office. Aside from transcribing town hall events and interviews, I had never gotten to hear my Representative publicly speak. The fact that it was an event centered around LGBT folks made it even better. Hearing Representative Craig share her story and how it lead her to pursue a career in public service really inspired me. Her speech reminded me that we all have experienced hardships in life, but it’s how we proceed after those hardships that really matters. Not everyone has the privilege to pursue higher education, and even fewer people have the opportunity to work as a Congressional intern in Washington, DC. Like Representative Craig, I intend to use the adversities I have faced in life to motivate me to work just that much harder for the change needed in our society and to do so by utilizing my privilege.
