Working Girl

I am such a space cadet sometimes; I didn't really realize what all this internship entails.

It's such a taste of the real world, it's in essence the real world. :)

I was riding the metro this morning, and I realized in the middle of my sudoku that I was doing something that for so long I could not imagine myself doing. I'm working an 8 hour work day and then going to school, and I'm doing it! I'm not going to lie, I am very proud of myself. It's not as hard as I thought it was going to be, by no means is it easy, but it is within my means.

I feel like I'm going somewhere, which is a really excellent feeling.

My internship is going well for the most part, I am starting to get into more interesting work. I won't bore you with the details, but I'm doing a little more then spreadsheets and filing. Both of which are important, but still not exactly the most exciting job. But I'm really starting to get into it, and I really love the people I'm working with. AND there are free donuts for breakfast this morning. LOVE IT!

Yesterday I met with Joan Echols, who is the woman who works for Merit Awards at AU. We talked about the Udall Scholarship, which she is strongly encouraging me to apply for. I think I will, I'm not sure how well I fit into the requirements but she said that it is definitely worth considering. I don't have to apply for another 13 months, but it's good to look ahead.

We're going to meet again sometime, she has a good deal of interest in the Native community particularly because of her experience working with the Udall scholars. She was able to go last year, and she said it was a wonderful experience. The scholarship is $5,000, which is a pretty healthy chunk of change. My parents are all for trying to get a little more money, I'm not too put off by the idea either.

I'm hoping that she could possibly set me up with a few programs or scholarships, it really wouldn't hurt since I'm planning to go to grad school and my parents have offered to pay as long as I can get some help getting it. So things are pretty exciting.

Wednesday night we met with some interesting people in the WINS class, we met with Jodi Archambault Gillette and Suzan Harjo. Both women were quite inspiring, I thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to meet both of them and hear their stories. Speaking to people who are involved in the activism and politics of DC makes the process real, it humanizes the system and reminds you that the people doing this work are just people. We are not run by a giant machine, and it has been really neat to meet some of these people.