So. How am I doing?

The novelty of living, working and exploring DC is rubbing off, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But I have quickly lost track of time, acquired several different demanding projects and feel the need to create 10 extra hours for everyday. Personally, my relationship with my roommates has continued to grow – I love each of them dearly and am so thankful for their support, humor and constant kindness. In the coming months, we have a birthday to celebrate, friends from school and home visiting, galas and receptions to attend, a ballet to watch and many other grand and exciting plans!

And thankfully, work is just about as exciting as my personal life. These past two weeks, the time between 9:30-5 has flown by and I have gotten up everyday excited for what I will be able to tackle next. Last week, I spent a lot of time creating media lists. A lot of time. A lot a lot a lot. The comprehensive program, CisionPoint, combined with a busy server meant that we were going at the speed of a limp turtle. However, there was a sense of accomplishment once they were finished. BUT there was also a sense of dread as it was time to begin making media calls. I tried to be as “cool, calm and collected” as possible going into the media calls but on the inside I wanted to crawl out of my skin and hide under a table. I wasn’t afraid of talking to people on the phone (although I do prefer talking in person) and I was confident in my ability to sell my story – it was all of the pressure associated with this being my first attempt at media calls and everyone could hear me when I mis-spoke, made a silly joke or just plain froze on the phone (due to the location of my desk and my booming voice, no had a choice but to listen to me while I was making calls – the other intern chose to move to another room – smart girl).

On my first day, I booked three radio interviews and by the end of the next day, I had nine radio interviews booked and one special interview set up with the Washington Examiner. I was pleased. I was actually more then pleased. I felt like I found my footing and now had concrete results to prove that my ability to communicate is as good as I tell everyone it is. I fell love with PR all over again – it isn’t an easy job. You have so many obstacles (people don’t want to talk to you, media doesn’t trust you, the public doesn’t trust you, they don’t see the story the way you see the story) but when you overcome all of that, it makes the success so much sweeter (started singing spoon full of sugar again….hopefully you have been reading my blog posts or you won’t understand my sense of humor at all). This past week, I switched clients and made more media phone calls for them on Monday. On Tuesday, I got to travel a bit – like to the Phoenix Hotel by Union Station where I helped interview advocates who here educating their member(s) of Congress about the need for education, training and funding to care for our aging population. These individuals had amazing personal and professional stories, which made their call to action not only believable but also heartfelt and very emotional. One woman talked about how she and her coworkers paid a special tribute to veterans by washing their feet and taking the time to talk with them on Veterans Day. Another gentleman talked about his fear for his 30-year old mentally retarded son. He looks beyond the immediate crisis he, as a 50 year old man, will be facing and said something like "imagine my 70 year old retarded son fending for himself in this system when I'm gone". His message really hit home for me and after I wiped away the tears and managed to take his picture without shaking the camera, I felt compelled to go up to the Hill myself and demand to talk to a representative from Massachusetts. And I hope I never lose that passion – the passion incited by people. People who I will represent and help make a difference (I still hold onto that ideal - I will make a difference).

The people I work with are amazing and I have a great relationship developing with each of them. Luckily, there are only seven people working in the Washington (Virginia) office of Tricom Associates. They are a family, most of them spend way too much time together and they are extremely talented individuals that feed off of one another to create amazing campaigns and projects. I really thrive in an environment where people can talk about anything (life, politics, family, news...) and where people enjoy a good laugh. I need humor to get through my day but I also need other people to have a sense of humor. Otherwise, I fear they will find my jokes too sarcastic and annoying - thankfully this isn’t one of those situations. I also work particularly well with people that enjoy collaboration. My ideal work environment would be were people strategize aloud and with each other. I subscribe to the belief that two heads are better then one and I know that allowing myself to think aloud and bounce ideas off of people will produce the best idea I am capable of coming up with.

I think my supervisor, Scott Triebitz, and I are still feeling each other out. He is a no-nonsense kind of guy and I know he has an infinite amount of wisdom and advice to pass down to me – I just have to tap into it. I don’t feel comfortable going up him quite yet but if I needed to, I would walk right in their and demand his attention, while he is on the phone and answering e-mail and signing off on the latest press release draft. And I think that’s where my hesitation comes from – knowing that he is such a busy guy, that if I am going to take up 30 seconds of his time, it better be for a good reason. I also fear his brain. There is so much history, politics and experience in there, that it is very intimidating. Additionally, after our program on Monday, I realized how little historical and political knowledge I have stored in my brain – something that I have been working on, this week I am going to memorize the first ten presidents and interesting facts about each of them. Baby steps, but it will make a difference in the long run.

I am just looking forward to the next couple of weeks and I know I will have plenty more stories and experiences to share.