Archives for August 2023

A lot of people have this idea of Washington D.C. in their heads of a cramped, smelly, overpopulated city where everybody is a politician just trying to get ahead. For some specific places or situations, those things can be true, but to cast that judgment on the city, as a whole, is narrow-minded and just not fair. The experience that I have been fortunate enough to have in D.C. is far from the swampy horror stories that I had been told leading up to my internship.

D.C. is not hard to navigate. I will be transparent, the first week or two, I had zero idea where I was going or how to get there. However, once I explored the city just a little bit, things started making a lot more sense. The metro that runs through the city is honestly all you need to get around (except for the bus getting to Georgetown) and once you get familiar with the different stops, you won’t even need google maps.

D.C. is not all politicians. Before my internship, I used to wonder “Why be in D.C. if you are not in politics?” but now I’ve realized that there are people here from (and I don’t mean to be cheesy) all walks of life. I have met some amazing people from non-profit groups, family-owned businesses, and locals who have lived here their whole lives. These are the people who create the culture here. They are the ones who make life fun!

D.C. is not that serious. I thought that from the moment I landed to the moment I left I was going to have to be buttoned-up, professional, and always “on the job.” That truly could not be farther from the truth. Even working in a congressional office, I never felt like I had to tamper my personality or “take it down a notch.” The people here are just normal people, and trying to play the part will only lead to burnout and a bad experience. Show your personality, meet new people, and enjoy it!

Listen to the advice and stories that people tell you before coming to D.C. but wait until you experience it to pass judgment on the city. The best way to do D.C. is with an open mind!

Cade Conrad
Office of Congressman Morgan Luttrell
Washington, D.C. | summer 2023

Close your eyes and imagine your hometown. For some the images revolve around endless asphalt and dirt roads engulfed in fields and pastures. For others, a more urban scene floods the mind with its congested streets and hustle and bustle of its pedestrians. Despite both being so vastly different, they each share a similarity: a motor vehicle. There is about a greater than 90% probability that you, the reader of this blog, drive a car, truck, or SUV. It is one of man’s greatest inventions, fulfilling the human need to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. You probably feel so strongly about your vehicle that you gave it a name and refer to the 4,000-pound hunk of mechanical and body parts as “she”.

Now imagine your lovely vehicle being stripped from you as you enter our nation’s capital: Washington, District of Columbia. Here you will find the way to easily (and cheaply, for all you Uber users out there) travel to and from Capitol Hill, across the Potomac from D.C. to Virginia, is the metro. Panic fills your body as you realize you must critically think about which train, even which station, to get on and off of to arrive safely at your destination. If you are wondering how ever to properly achieve this, you have come to the correct place. The guide to understanding how to navigate this system is outlined in these steps:

• Learn The Colors
  • The trains are differentiated by their respective colors, and there are two of each color (more on that on the next point). The colors are: blue, yellow, orange, silver, red, and green. Knowing which colors go to the station you want to get off on is the easiest way to quickly become a pro.
• Learn The Directions
  • In my previous point, I mentioned how there are two trains for each color. Those two trains go in opposite directions, and each is marked by the FINAL destination they reach in each direction. For example, the blue line trains are Largo Town Center (this one heads toward Capitol Hill) and Franconia Springfield (this one heads toward Ronald Reagan National Airports
• Google Maps Is Your Friend
  • Now that you know the colors and their directions, type the monument or museum you want to see into google and see which station it says to go to. Then, figure out the color you need to take and which direction, and you are all set!

Connor Chappell
The Fertilizer Institute
Washington, D.C. | summer 2023