It's 1:30 AM and I just finished last-minute packing. Tomorrow, a few friends and I leave for New York City for 5 days of our spring break. I'm really looking forward to returning to the city for the second time in my life; the last time I was here was almost exactly 3 years ago when I came with my high school theatre department.
This time I'm traveling with a "local", so hopefully she'll have some interesting sights to show us. It should be a great week and I'll post some pictures when I get back!
NYC, here I come!
Friday, March 5, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Senator Max Cleland
Today, my class met with a extraordinary individual at the headquarters of the American Battlefield Monuments Commission in Arlington, Virginia.
Max Cleland is a veteran who lost his leg and his arm in an explosion in Vietnam. He is a former U.S. Senator whose term spanned through Clinton's impeachment proceedings, 9/11, and the vote to give President Bush the authority to invade of Iraq (a vote that he said haunts him to this day). He was given the honor of introducing John Kerry at the Democratic Convention during the 2004 campaign. Last year he was appointed by President Obama to head of the American Battlefield Monuments Commission--the agency charged with caring for our battlefield cemeteries around the world.
Craziest of all, he got his start as a participant in the Washington Semester Program--the same program I'm on--in the 1960s. He said he didn't have any direction when he went into the program at the age of 21. He had just changed his major for the third time and didn't have any idea what he wanted to do with his life. While he was here, though, he said he got the famous "Potomac Fever" and knew he wanted to go into public service.
While he was here on the program, his class got to go into President Kennedy's oval office and he was able to see the President's famous desk with the trap door. Then a week later, he was walking on the quad--the same quad I cross every day--when he heard the news that the President had been shot. He said that moment changed his life.
He told another story about the day, many years later, when he gave the speech introducing the man of the hour--then presidential-nominee John Kerry--at the Democratic Convention in the 2004 election. He wanted to look good for the television cameras so he went onstage without his glasses. Turns out, the teleprompter was set up so far out into the audience that he couldn't read "a damn thing" on it! It was lucky for him that he had spent the whole previous week practicing his speech.
It was a truly amazing and inspiring talk. He ended the hour by telling us all to "just go for it" in whatever we do. After all, we are in our 20's, and that's what this age is all about--taking risks and experiencing life. We have the rest of our lives to live with all the risks we take, whether they be bad or good, so we might as well just take them.
Max Cleland is a veteran who lost his leg and his arm in an explosion in Vietnam. He is a former U.S. Senator whose term spanned through Clinton's impeachment proceedings, 9/11, and the vote to give President Bush the authority to invade of Iraq (a vote that he said haunts him to this day). He was given the honor of introducing John Kerry at the Democratic Convention during the 2004 campaign. Last year he was appointed by President Obama to head of the American Battlefield Monuments Commission--the agency charged with caring for our battlefield cemeteries around the world.
Craziest of all, he got his start as a participant in the Washington Semester Program--the same program I'm on--in the 1960s. He said he didn't have any direction when he went into the program at the age of 21. He had just changed his major for the third time and didn't have any idea what he wanted to do with his life. While he was here, though, he said he got the famous "Potomac Fever" and knew he wanted to go into public service.
While he was here on the program, his class got to go into President Kennedy's oval office and he was able to see the President's famous desk with the trap door. Then a week later, he was walking on the quad--the same quad I cross every day--when he heard the news that the President had been shot. He said that moment changed his life.
He told another story about the day, many years later, when he gave the speech introducing the man of the hour--then presidential-nominee John Kerry--at the Democratic Convention in the 2004 election. He wanted to look good for the television cameras so he went onstage without his glasses. Turns out, the teleprompter was set up so far out into the audience that he couldn't read "a damn thing" on it! It was lucky for him that he had spent the whole previous week practicing his speech.
It was a truly amazing and inspiring talk. He ended the hour by telling us all to "just go for it" in whatever we do. After all, we are in our 20's, and that's what this age is all about--taking risks and experiencing life. We have the rest of our lives to live with all the risks we take, whether they be bad or good, so we might as well just take them.
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