“My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win out.” The words of Ronald Reagan hold true, whether you revere him or not. No matter who you are, your background, or who you choose to be, these words epitomize the journey of life and our navigation through the challenges presented to us. What the end goal is doesn’t necessarily matter compared to our determination to get there and the lessons we learn from the quest. These past few months have lived up to this quote.
In no way was this year’s fellowship program ever going to emulate those of the past, given the pandemic and the unforeseen destruction that has toiled for months. Many plans went awry, as some of the fellows have written about. While the conditions for the Fellowship were not the most ideal, partially taking away from the experience, I came to the realization that this was a unique opportunity that I could take advantage of. In an ordinary internship, I may have been expected to do routine, mundane tasks with the opportunity to learn some policy. But with the circumstances of the pandemic, I found myself serving a vital role to the community. In times such as these, we often look to protect our loved ones and are privileged enough to be living in good arrangement. However, not everyone could afford that luxury, and this pandemic has left people of all backgrounds in trouble.
One week, I lead efforts to help trace the missing P-EBT benefits of a hard-working family who desperately needed them in order to continue through this pandemic. Many low-income families rely on these state issued programs to purchase food to help feed their families, especially with schools closed and no longer able to serve meals to children. Hearing the desperation of this family made me think back to why I even considered a future in politics. From a young age, I’ve always wanted to be able to help people in any way I could and give back to the community. As I grew older, I began to develop a fascination for the intricacies and workings of government. As I matured, I began reading the works of our founders, be it documents of law or essays in defense of it. A greater understanding of the perspectives of those who created our government made it clear to me that my way of giving back to the community would be to serve it through a career in law and politics. I would be a servant to the people, ensuring that I could protect the democratic freedoms that our nation enjoys while uplifting those in society who require a voice. Many people have been silenced by this pandemic, unable to lift their wings and prosper. Working to restore the benefits of these citizens gave me a new sense of validation in that I had the power to change a person’s life for the better. No longer was this internship about me and getting work experience, which was an added benefit nonetheless. It was about rebuilding our state one step at a time, doing whatever I could to help as many people as possible.
I was also tasked with helping small businesses come out of the dark and begin to reopen. Many businesses struggled amidst the pandemic and the economy showed it during the second quarter. While major retailers had ample funds reserved to reassert themselves in the market, the smaller, more hard working individuals, who put their souls into their businesses, were back to square one. Many of them needed avenues of funding and looked to legislative offices such as ours for answers. I became consumed in looking for ways I could direct businesses to the right form of help. Working around the clock, I researched numerous private, state, and federal grants and relief programs that small business owners could use to help start up once more. I worked on making reports and summaries and making sure that these constituents would get the answers they needed. I embraced their struggles as my own, working to ensure that these people had everything they needed to succeed while being assured that their government had their back.
Looking back on these experiences, I reflect on President Reagan’s words. I’ve always known what I’ve wanted to do my life, but until the fellowship program, I never had the chance to experience it. While I may have endured unfortunate circumstances, it is undeniable that I have also been blessed with some luck. The loss of an in-person internship due to COVID-19 led me to having a virtual internship in which I learned a great deal of emergency government response and got to partake in one as well. And to say the speakership series wasn’t inspirational and enjoyable would be a lie. Never did I think I would have the opportunity to speak to a congressman and have a back and forth discussion on a matter in which we disagreed upon. To see both Representative Frank Pallone and I defend our arguments, with different Federalist Papers written by Alexander Hamilton, made for a compelling historical discussion on executive power. Speakers such as Dan Schuberth, Parimal Garg, Dan Benson, and Ishan Shah all captivated me with their political backgrounds and experiences. To have the opportunity to speak with these fine people and learn from them only adds to why this year’s fellowship program may have been an unexpected surprise. Following up with some of these speakers have opened up new opportunities for me in the future to learn and continue finding ways to help the community. This all brings me back to the philosophy of Reagan. President Reagan believed that if we know what we want and work tirelessly to achieve it, then we will never lose. That does not mean that everything we do comes out perfect nor does that mean we will always be content. A world in which we must cope with COVID-19 proves it will be anything but easy. However, so long as we enjoy the journey and make sure we hold ourselves accountable, we have already won. Our ability to learn from the challenges and become better people is just as good of a reward as accomplishing our dreams. At the end of the day, it is the experiences that we have, and how we face them, that will define us and truly make a lasting impact on our legacy.