This week marks my first time back in Sen. Sullivan’s D.C. office since the beginning of the
pandemic. Needless to say, the experience felt surreal. Everything is more or less where I remember it being: my friend Allison up front answering calls, Erin and Sarah in the back working through IQ, Soukup quietly gathering clips in the press room. Like the world following Thanos’ snap though, only half of the staff was present. The rest worked from home, either in Alaska or around D.C. Select staff seem to break the rule, if only because they have offices insulating them from everyone else. Nevertheless, everyone wears a mask. With the lessened in-person attendance, everyone is safely socially distant, and hand sanitizer is readily available wherever you go in the office. It’s a far cry from what I’ve seen from every other office on our floor so far, where the lights are off, the doors are locked, and its clear everyone is working remotely. Honestly though, I like being back in person. I won’t lie in saying that a part of me is afraid I’ll catch the coronavirus, but I’ve missed team Sullivan. I’ve missed the friends I have here, and the office comradery we share. As much as I was grateful to stay on and work remotely for the Senator and the people of Alaska over the spring and through the early summer, I missed putting on a suit and coming into the office. I missed learning what issues were important to Alaskans across the state. I missed the connection I felt between my studies and my work. It was nice to get all of those things back, or at least the impression of them. It was also nice to come back and feel immediately like I was a part of the team. That I wasn’t an intern to work on menial tasks, but rather was a trusted team member. While the other interns in the fall cohort trained to answer phones, navigate the office, sort mail, and get to know the intern handbook, I was assigned a desk in the back to get to work straightaway. From my second day back, I was tasked with helping the legislative correspondents reply to constituent requests and opinions. I was helping out with staff level work. At the best part is, I love the work. I love researching the legislative basis around a constituent’s particular request and learning more about the policy world around me. I love learning more about the impacts our policies have on the citizens we serve. I love the work it takes to informatively reply to those who have reached out to us. Each time I come to work, I feel in touch with those back home, even if we are a continent apart. I feel like I make a difference with the work I do here. It’s a feeling I’ve really missed. And a feeling I’m ever grateful to have again.
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Photo used under Creative Commons from Mike Juvrud