I Spy With My Little Eye

Bonjour,

The last two weeks have been a drag. My policy class has been boring. Studying for the GRE is incongruous with my other activities. It is as though my work load quadrupled while my motivation to work declined, thus adding even more work for me to do. I think the best thing that happened recently was my trip to the International Spy Museum through the Science, Technology and Society program. I must say, that was the best museum I have ever been to. I'm not a museum goer kind of guy. I prefer to do things, make my own history, rather than spend hours and hours examining the past in museums. I know it is often said that you must know where you came from in order to know where you are going, but museums don't elicit that sort of understanding within me. However, I loved the Spy Museum's hands-on approach, from memorizing a spy's identity to crawling through a ventilation system.

Anyway, at the Spy Museum, my classmates and I participated in a mission to recover a lost nuclear detonator. The best part was when we raided a suspected person's office; it felt so real. I tend to pay attention to details, which made that mission a little bit more exhilarating for me. In the back of mind is the idea that I would be perfect as a federal agent; henceforth, I may study for the foreign service exam and see where that takes me in the world of intelligence. That trip is causing me to question my motives for wanting a PhD in public health when I can go into the federal government and do something I'm truly passionate about. I just don't want to have regrets ten years down the road.

In other news, I am finally able to get a substantial amount of work done as an intern at Safe Kids Worldwide. My supervisor seems to have a lot of deadlines coming up so he's actually giving me the opportunity to feel like I'm contributing to the organization. For example, this week I wrote a report to the Consumer Product Safety Commission urging them to put warning labels on skateboards. The report highlighted the 147% increase of hospital visits due to skateboard injuries in the United States over the last ten years. Additionally, I've taken a couple of trips to Congressional hearings on Capitol Hill and then reported back to Safe Kids Worldwide on who said what, and most importantly, how we can garner support of the people who said things that are pleasing to the organization without political partisanship. 

At last, whoaa...25 days left in good old Washington, DC. Hmm...how I will seize the day without succumbing to work overload...

Until Next Time,
Emmanuel H.