Tuesday July 16th, 2024
As I got to work today I found out that the new National President of LULAC, Roman Palomares, would be coming to the office for the week. I was very excited to meet him as I had been able to speak with him for a bit during the convention in Las Vegas! I worked over the weekend on a slide deck that my supervisor had requested for me to present to Roman and the rest of the office regarding the obesity epidemic. All of the interns were giving presentations on the topics that they were covering in the past few weeks to be able to provide information to Roman. Everyone was diligently at work as we would be presenting tomorrow, so the entire day was spent with music in my Air Pods and scrolling through pages upon pages of data on my computer.
In the morning some of the CHCI interns wanted to go and watch the horror movie Longlegs later in the day, and being interested in the film, I decided to tag along. We made the short walk to the theater started watching the movie, but halfway through the light on the fire alarm started flashing REALLY brightly! The alarm wasn't blaring but the light was blinking nonstop, and not wanting to get caught in a fire, we all left the theatre. What we found out, however, was that it was A FALSE ALARM!! To make things worse it happened during the climax of the movie!!!! We were so upset that we ended up getting free movie vouchers, and the cherry on top was that the ending was extremely anti-climactic! Needless to say, when I got home I had a very emotional rest!
Wednesday July 17th, 2024
This morning the other interns and I were speaking at the Department of Education at the HEP/CAMP Directors meeting. When we arrived we all got to see our directors after almost an entire summer being in DC! Getting to see Hallie and Dr. Boyer was a delight, and being able to talk about my experience with this internship to everyone that was there felt like being able to show the impact that these opportunities have on people like the other interns and myself. We got to see Patrick again as well!! It felt like so long ago but getting to see him was one of my top ten moments of this week. I just wish I could have gotten to see Virginia too :(. I went back to LULAC shortly after we left to give my presentation alongside all of the other interns, and needless to say, I CRUSHED IT!! Afterward, I got to meet some of the amazing people who work at HEP/CAMP!! We ate delicious Chinese food and have some great conversations! Today was a rollercoaster, but it was extremely worth it! Once I got out of work I went home to get some much-needed sleep!
Thursday July 18th, 2024
Today at work I was assigned a last-minute presentation with Valentina, another intern at LULAC. This presentation focused on mobilizing Latinos to vote in the upcoming election because while many are registered, few actually make it to the polling booths. Since I had yet to do a deep dive into more specific information regarding this topic in various different states, I started as soon as it had been assigned to me, but by the time I had to go, I had only scratched the tip of the iceberg! I ended up leaving work early because my directors had informed me that I would be speaking to some of the people who worked under Senator Alex Padilla of California!!! I went to the Hart Senate building and alongside many other HEP/CAMP Directors & Representatives, I spoke about the positive impact that this organization has had on my life! After which, my directors invited me to dinner where we got to have some amazing conversations! We went to the Old Ebbitt Grill where I tried crab cakes for the first time, and they were honestly one of the best things I've had to eat over here yet! After parting ways, I went straight home to continue working on the presentation that I was working on earlier. Once I found more sufficient information, I ended up falling asleep at my computer!
Friday July 19th, 2024
I woke up not feeling so good this morning, and I thought that maybe I might have gotten Covid, but after a few tests, they all came back negative. I notified my supervisor who told me not to worry since we were not giving the presentations today as we had discussed previously because the President of LULAC was not going to be in the office. He had returned to Texas but would be on a Zoom call next week to discuss the presentations. Today was honestly really bitter sweet however, because many of the interns that I had worked with all summer were going to be leaving back to their own schools and homes. People that I have become accustomed to and gotten to know were now going to be leaving just as quickly as they had come to be on our journey together. While I may not get to say goodbye to them all in person, I can't help but be forever grateful for the experiences that we've had throughout this entire summer. And I leave to you all the same quote that I titled this weeks journal...in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening and good night!
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