Thoughts of the Sleepless

Well, 5:00 in the morning finds me sleepless and nursing a nagging cough. I finally decided to get up a few minutes ago, and since the busy day gives me very little opportunity to write, I concluded that this is the perfect time. A lot has happened since I last blogged. I went to Washington D.C. with the Park Scholars class of 2011. It was an AMAZING trip. I really miss being with those guys. It is so hard to get all of us together. When you have 50 overachieving young adults you can't even get five minutes for coffee! It is ridiculous. Anyways, we learned about the economy and what is happening to our nations money. We heard speakers about the national debt and the problems that the candidates are refusing to address in a manner with any backbone: social security and medicare. They refuse to address it because no matter what they say voters will be lost. Americans are NOT willing to sacrifice for the greater good of anyone else, and any candidate asking them to do so would immediately become extremely unpopular. It is kind of frustrating. Actually, I am really frustrated with Washington in general. Politicians are extremely "me" centered. The foundation of our United States is one of corruption. The more I learn the more frustration I feel. But don't get me started on this, I still don't know enough to have intelligent conversation about it nor to propose a solution, so until then my political opinions are confined to my head and my blog. Anyways, back to the trip. It was really good bonding. I had some great conversation with the Assistant (hopefully soon official) director, Eva. I really like her. She comes across as intimidating at first, but once you spend time with her you see her for who she is, and who she is is great. I also had some great bonding with the Parks on the train ride home. We had a few technical difficulties and what should have taken 5 hours took 7. About 25 of us ended up piling into one small section and singing random 90's songs for about an hour. It was incredibly fun, the kind of fun where you say anything because you are so tired. We laughed until we cried. We had arms and legs everywhere. It was crazy, and I will never forget it.