Last week brought to a conclusion a wild ride that was my internship on Capitol Hill. It was a crazy four months that really ended rather blandly. The new interns arrived last week and so far from what I have heard they have fit in really well. In the last four months, a ton has happened on the hill that is known and a ton more that has not been newsworthy enough.
Back in February when I first joined on COVID was running rampant and only a couple of people in each office were vaccinated and the capital was in complete disarray with fencing up and the National Guard deployed en mass. Honestly, the whole feeling of being on the hill and in the general area was pretty depressing. Just the vibe that was given off by everyone you met was really uncomfortable to say the least. People were crazy about masks and really the city was more or less closed down.
Over the ensuing months though slowly but surely the city began to open up. In March the outer fencing came down and thousands of National Guardsmen left. The who feeling though was not ideal as there were clashes on the hill that were publically talked about. Both sides of the aisle really just kept to themselves and you did not even see staff members really mixing between the two sides. The city though was slightly opening up and so you could go to restaurants however it was a timed affair since they were operating at 25%. Also the first two weeks I was living out of a hotel due to my roommate getting COVID while I was away and I did not want to get sick.
April really started to show more change though even within the office building more and more places were opening up. I got my first vaccine shot and mask runs were super relaxed at work. It wasn't just within the offices either but also in the hallways where people on both sides stopped wearing masks yet they would do so on TV which I always found...... interesting.
When May rolled around though man everything changed. Everything was rapidly rolled back that was still in place. Restaurants opened to 100% sports events could be attended beyond just 12.5% it was rather crazy. The weather has turned from cold to nice and warm and the pools/hot tubs at my apartment have now opened up! Even cooler was people were starting to go into other offices for meetings. Exxon had a team stop by the office to give a presentation and it was just nice to see some normalcy. It was also becoming easier to meet with other people and to really network and meet new people.
I am kind of bummed that after all of this it is over. Finally when things were getting interesting and opening up my internship was over. However the time I had was definitely extremely interesting and will forever have a place in American History. What is next is currently unknown. I hope to get a full-time job on the hill and to continue to learn and connect with more and more people. There are a ton of off hilll options available but I would prefer to stay on hill and will continue to work towards locking down a job there.
