journalist guy?

"Are you that journalist guy?"

"Yes I am," I responded to Congressman Cooper (D-Tenn.) after lounging with the Washington Post and a cup of coffee in a deep leather armchair surrounded by music and sports memorabilia from my hometown Nashville Tennessee. I would like to attribute my waiting for two hours to get a chance to talk to the U.S. Representative to my commitment to the field of journalism. The fact is that commitment to journalism or my current assignment was the last thing on my mind.

I mean come on, this is awesome! The capitol building was right through the window and there were a bunch of young suit-clad Tennesseans running about, many of whom were overly concerned with my comfort. Granted this concern probably had more to do with southern hospitality than any illusions they had as to my "importance", but the bottom line is that I could have sat in that room all day and been completely fine.

This all probably makes me sound green. Which I am. But when I did finally sit down in Congressman Cooper's office, I set my recorder on the desk and I asked him questions that I truly wanted to know about. To my surprise he sat there and answered my questions and engaged in a discussion for almost a half hour. We talked about issues ranging from trading emissions credits to making it mandatory for all citizens to participate in civil service to a shift from subsidation to taxation as a more efficient way to create economic incentives in the markets.

Granted my current outlets for all of this great information is limited, and the actual "news" content was probably small, but for me it was an empowering and rewarding experience. The issues that we talked about were important and he spoke to me with respect.

I returned to grad school to have the time and opportunities to things like this and I am glad that we are being thrown into situations where we are challenged to learn.

I plan on fully milking every such opportunity for all it is worth over the next year, because over the last few years of working in fast paced work environments under constant financial strain I have had too little time to dedicate to things that are truly important to me. I feel lucky to be in a situation where working on something that I genuinely care about is now my job.

-lagan