[Nfbmo] From the Intern Files: my experience, my gratitude, and perhaps some entertainment

Wed Aug 3 18:31:59 UTC 2016

It sounds like you have had an incredible experience that will help guide your life course.

-----Original Message-----
From: Nfbmo [mailto:nfbmo-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Shelia Wright via Nfbmo
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2016 11:58 AM
To: 'NFB of Missouri Mailing List'
Cc: Shelia Wright
Subject: Re: [Nfbmo] From the Intern Files: my experience, my gratitude, and perhaps some entertainment

Great note. Thanks for sharing your experience with us. We look forward to hearing more.

Now, Come Home for at least a few weeks!
Shelia

-----Original Message-----
From: Nfbmo [mailto:nfbmo-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Julie McGinnity via Nfbmo
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2016 10:40 AM
To: NFB of Missouri Mailing List <nfbmo at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Julie McGinnity <kaybaycar at gmail.com>
Subject: [Nfbmo] From the Intern Files: my experience, my gratitude, and perhaps some entertainment

Hi everyone and happy Wednesday!

I have spent the last ten weeks interning at our national office in Baltimore, and it has been the experience of a lifetime!  I wanted to write a bit about what I've been doing here because you guys are my
inspiration in the federation.   The Missouri affiliate is welcoming,
growing, and is the best NFB family ever!  There are not words adequate to describe how awesome it is to be a part of this affiliate.
Sad though I am to be leaving Baltimore, I look forward to returning to Missouri for the next few weeks and hope to see many of you.

The interns spent the summer concentrating on various projects.  Of course, we learned about all the programs that come directly out of our Jernigan Institute.  We began the summer with the advocacy and policy department, learning how to discuss our legislative priorities in clear and concise messages.  Each of us made appointments with our Congress people.  Yay Missouri...  because I met with every Congress office for our state except one.  I even got to meet Vicky Hartzler, Lacy Clay, and Blane Luetkemeyer in person.  I learned so much from meeting with these offices and spending time familiarizing myself with these priorities on a deeper level than is even expected for the attendees of Washington Seminar.  Legislative committee, don't let me get away with forgetting to give you a more detailed account of my experience and what I learned about our Missouri Congress friends.

This internship teaches me new lessons every day.  Sometimes the lesson occurs as a result of hanging up on the president of the National Federation of the Blind.  (I swear, I thought he was one of my fellow interns playing a trick on me!)  Some lessons are practical...  Like, have you ever cut fabric squares or stuffed packets full of paper and other random items?  Well, it's the real deal, and so is bleeding for the federation...  :)  (I'm not the best fabric square cutter.)

And then we have those lessons that, once learned, will always be a part of me.  I know now the value of asking why throughout the evolution of a process.  And I am reminded every day that the people here at our national office support us.  If we have questions, we can reach out and ask.  We are an organization, and we are interconnected.
And that has been the most uplifting lesson of all.

The interns have worked to build affiliates.  We have written (and
rewritten) action plans, made phone calls, drafted (and redrafted) emails, and talked with new leaders in these places.  Sometimes this work seems discouraging, like when you call wrong number after wrong number.  I've been hung up on myself!  But then there's that time...
when it works, and that person connects with us.  I still get nervous when making these phone calls, but I think that is for the best.  You never know what you'll get on these cold calls, and a nervous brain keeps me aware and conscious of what I'm saying.  (No, Debbie, I won't mind helping you with phone calls in the future.)

When I look back on this time, I will remember most vividly the experiences.
I met three incredible human beings and life-long friends in my fellow interns.  They are my intern siblings.  We traveled together to Philidelphia one weekend; we found a home in the inner harbor in Baltimore.  (I almost fell in!)  When things got stressful, we talked and ranted and then went out to Home Slyce.  One day we had an NFB sing-along in our office (on our break, of course.) And I mustn't forget the time I sang the Star Spangled Banner at Fort McHenry, the place where it was written.  I'll paste a link to the video below.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24683458/Star%20Spangled%20Banner%20%28s
ung%20at%20Fort%20McHenry%20July%2023%202016%29.MOV

I don't write this so that you guys get the idea that I know everything about the federation or anything.  There is still so much for me to learn.
If I'm honest, I have to tell you all that I continue to learn to think openly and without expectations.  Every affiliate, and every project is a little (or a lot) different from the other.  Our message may be simple, but showing people they can live the lives they want is certainly not.  It's hard to see it ourselves sometimes.

If you read this novel, thank you.  I miss you all and hope to catch up with many of you when I'm back in the land of humidity and "real"
baseball over the next couple weeks.

Let's go build the federation!

Love,

Julie and William Robert

_______________________________________________
Nfbmo mailing list
Nfbmo at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbmo_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Nfbmo:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbmo_nfbnet.org/sbwright95%40att.net

_______________________________________________
Nfbmo mailing list
Nfbmo at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbmo_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Nfbmo:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbmo_nfbnet.org/rogerc%40lifecilmo.org