Maneuvering my way through the maze of people that is Dulles International Airport and hiking across what I considered was the entire District of Columbia to find my bag, by myself no less, was by far the most intimidating situation I’ve ever been in. Luckily, I was greeted by a girl in bright green who pointed me in the right direction. 10 minutes later I was finally surrounded by other people dressed in yellow cotton tees who were in my exact situation. We hit it off immediatly. These were some of the most friendly, enthusiastic, and passionate kids I’ve ever met.
So we all piled into the “sweet party bus” with our amazing driver Rosco (picture the most down-home, southern, down-to-earth, stereotypical black country guy. Whatever you’re picturing, that’s Rosco). He was the sweetest thing. The 20 minute drive to the school was filled with “where are you from?”‘s, and “what’s your name again?”‘s, amidst ooh’s and ahh’s of the beautiful colonial-style churches and houses. Us folks on the west coast have gotten used to surf shacks and skyscrapers. This was a surprisingly nice change in scenery.
The first day was a mix of shuffling students, meeting advisors, and finding our rooms. By dinnertime we were exhausted. But we couldn’t sleep yet–not when Brian Lamb was in the house! We groggily but excitedly made our way down the at least ten-mile walkway to the auditorium to hear what the CEO of CSPAN had to say to us. This was the most anticipated event for my trip, so of course when he asked for volunteers to come and join him my heart might have skipped a beat. And I think I died a little inside when he pointed me out, “Yes, the young red-headed lady in the aisle”. I still can’t believe I didn’t trip or fall off the stage. So the five of us answered some questions about who we were and what journalism meant to us. Mr. Lamb talked a lot about the future of journalism and how we will affect it. It was a very inspiring speech and I was immediately convinced this trip was a good idea.
So, what did I learn on my first day? Hm…Well I learned that there are in fact other people my age with a real interest in journalism and politics (I thought I was just weird), but here I can actually have conversations with 17-year olds about important issues. I met some of the greatest people, Samantha, Nicole, Kate, Chris, everyone else in my group. I also learned that journalism does have a future and I will be very interested to watch it grow.