Intricacies Among Connections

With an unfinished cereal bowl in hand, shoes untied, and laptop chargers holding on to the half-zipped recluse of the backpack that I slung over my shoulder, I rushed into the car. Neglecting the fact that punctuality was not my strong suit, I had designated the first week of my internship at Senator Vin Gopal’s office to be in-person. Nothing short of a feat considering that the only other interactions I had were with the other inhabitants of my home. I heaved a large sigh and stepped into the building, which felt larger than I had planned. While there were only two floors, I managed to lose my way, weaving through the halls until I finally found the room a couple of rooms from the entrance. I was relieved to know that there was another intern that had just arrived alongside me for the internship. 

After knocking for a few seconds at the Legislative District 11 office, the door flew open and it was the Senate Deputy Chief of Staff Aislinn Brennan smiling when we entered. After settling into our assigned desks I was emailed the first assignment of the day. It was to update a tracker for the bills that Senator Gopal had been a sponsor to. In completing this task, not only did I update the sheets but also learned about the policies that Senator Gopal supported and what bills had been passed in the last year. Many regarding COVID-19 and fiscal policies, I decided to do research on the bills that I was unable to fully comprehend. Simply in the first two hours, I began to understand New Jersey law more than I ever had. While my brain racked the myriad of ways that I would be able to embarrass myself on the first day, the Senate Chief of Staff Dyese Davis decided we would go out and get ice cream. We laughed as we recalled the horrible experiences we had faced with people in the fast-food business and soon I had forgotten about the hypothetical situations in which I humiliated myself. 

At the end of the eventful week in which I had organized the physical copies of the Legislative District 11 bills, responded to curious constituents about the recent plastic bag ban, and attempted to draft a letter to the governor in order to request that certain funds be reserved for arts and culture programs, I had the speakership series. The speakership series although now resorting to a Zoom meeting retained its level of inspiring talks with speakers from all avenues of life with multitudes of experiences and a manifold of stories to share. This weekend’s speakership series began with a woman that I had the pleasure of working with myself, Dyese Davis. Her stories were filled with her experiences with constituents and the importance of maintaining a reliable presence in their lives. Derived from her degree in sociology she built incomparable connections with the people she represented and the people she worked with to build a society that they felt proud serving. Along with her sociology degree, her degree in criminal justice taught her to understand the intricacies of the system and decipher the unjust workings. Especially with the rise of COVID-19, the prison system was neglected and Davis understood her role as a lawmaker to work to fix the flaws.

Not only did Davis talk about fixing the flaws but so did the next speaker, Carissa Smith. Smith spoke about the importance of supporting women in politics and mitigating the apparent gap between men and women. Drawing on her own experiences as being part of campaign teams, she explained how large of a role data is in orchestrating political campaigns. While explaining the role of data, she recalled how useful simply being a part of a campaigning team can be. The gratification that you can earn from the team and the policies you support. Politics is often seen as a dirty table which she looked through the lens of either she can “leave the dirty table or grab a kleenex and get to cleaning.” Inspiring us to work on our own ethics and principles and maintaining our goals in politics. 

We spoke to Sam Joshi, a mayoral candidate for Edison township who reminded us of the significance of a municipal government. As it impacts the day-to-day life of the local populous while the federal government has a much more subtle effect. Our final speaker was the Chief Counsel to the Governor, Parimal Garg. Garg discussed his roles as counsel and how all his cases were unique that required an equally unique approach.

Learning from the speakers each week and the people that I work with, I carry knowledge with me I would not have been able to fathom a year ago. I found myself speaking to my friends about recent bills that had been passed as a casual conversation topic. I had carried with me an expectation that I would be quizzed or some other probing questionnaire would face me on the first day. I read New Jersey statutes as I finished my cornflakes in the car. Instead, I was met with individuals who had much more experience and merit that made me feel welcome anyway and part of the team. Similarly, with my assumption that I would be disregarded by the other interns, on the contrary, we found ourselves joking amongst one another. It was easy to find a society within the individuals I met. I soon began to gain experience that I revere from so many of the speakers themselves.