Vanessa Vallon -- at the Capitol

Going to the Capitol Building proved to be an invigorating, fascinating, and very surprising experience for me. I had never been to Washington D.C. before this trip, and having been able to go into one of the District’s most important and prominent buildings and get a first-hand look at what the Senators, Representatives of the House, the Press, and all the staff that go with them actually do on a daily basis was absolutely remarkable. To me, these people always seemed like these divine, remote beings that I had no connection to, and to see some of them in person, doing their jobs, really made me realize the importance of their work and how everything (or most things) in our daily lives can be attributed to the decisions made in this building. Everyone working on the Hill has some sort of purpose, and as vital as all of their jobs are, the journalists have some of the most important jobs.

I was shocked at how many reporters work on the Hill each day, and how much they really have to cover on a daily basis. After even watching just 10 minutes in the House of Representatives, and attempting to decipher the points from the representatives’ carefully contrived but nevertheless ridiculously confusing and very fast-paced speeches, the role of the journalist was suddenly put into a different light as I recognized the difficulty of their duties. Therefore, the trip definitely allowed me to take a closer look at the role of the reporter, and as shocked as I was at how demanding their duties really are, it still entices me into becoming a journalist, and taking on something as seemingly challenging as this.