<ack everything up and prepare to return to Carleton, I realize that there are a few things that have really struck me about life in Washington. None of them warrant a whole column, but they are just so prominent in the real world that I think they are worth sharing:
1. I can’t stress this enough: connections really are everything. The schmoozing is obvious at every turn.
2. The key to power is the outfit. For the girls, always wear heels. None of this changing into sneakers for walking around mumbo-jumbo. The truly powerful women in this city will only be seen in heels. For the guys, if you aren’t wearing a suit you ain’t nothin’.
3. The rest of the country is laughing at us for the continuing Coleman-Franken fiasco. I can’t tell you how many times people have asked me what the heck we are doing up in Minnesota.
4. Washington really is its own version of Hollywood. The new politicos in town really are the stars of the city and the gossip surrounding them never ends. It’s a tiny city and everyone knows everything. For example, do you know that Jon Favreau, Obama’s 27-year-old chief speechwriter, is dating a Maxim model who was once on the reality show “For Love or Money” and is now working as an assistant in the White House? Well, everyone in Washington does.
5. School is easier than work. Enough said. We should stay in school forever. Many view politics as a game and completely irrelevant. Throughout the term I have tried to bring some more substantive political conversation to the table, trying always to remember that at the heart of politics is a government that truly has the power to do some great things.
Thanks for reading about my adventure in they city this term. It was fun to share the bits of information I picked up along the way. I hope that we can keep the political conversation going at Carleton throughout the next two years instead of letting it hibernate until 2010.
-Michelle Gajewski is a Carletonian columnist.