The Monday weekly meetings with various famous persons was icing on the cake. In the all star line-up that we met with, John Kobara and Judge Ronald Lew were the standouts. Mr. Kobara’s engaging and high energy speaking style made the whole experience memorable. I took his witty life advice to heart and it was very reassuring to know that some of the advice that he was dishing out, I was already following, especially the part about not listening to your parents. The self help S.W.I.V.E.L. worksheet that he had handed out during his presentation is incredibly helpful, so much so that I have shared it with multiple friends. On the other hand, the meeting with Judge Lew went completely differently. Judge Lew spoke softly and slowly but his words had so much weight that they just stuck to my mind. The judge would often pause before answering a question and during that moment of silence, I could not help but hold my breath. When Judge Lew paused the world stopped and it only resumed once he had found the perfect words to express his thoughts. To me Judge Lew is a real life sage from one of those myths of old. I can imagine him giving advice to a young hero, advice that the hero ignores at his own peril. A large part of what makes the internship program so amazing is the fact that we are connected to such amazing people. I doubt I would have been able to meet any of these individuals by myself.
Every week I found myself going to at least one event, often times at the last minute because I would forget that there was even an event that day. The first event I went to was the Lilian Kawasaki fundraiser, which was terribly awkward. It was a very small fundraiser consisting of maybe ten people and all of them were familiar with each other. This made it extremely difficult to strike up a conversation and it did not help that many of them were old white men. However, Lilian tried her best to introduce us to people and facilitate conversation, so all in all it was not a terrible first experience. As I attended more and more events, I became better at networking and so the events became less awkward and more fun. The highlight of all these events occurred at the last event that I attended, at the APALP fundraiser where I found myself having a give and take conversation with LAFD Fire Chief Emile Mack. I ended that night standing next to State Controller John Chiang and just joking with him, completely relaxed and enjoying the moment.
I really appreciated the events because it allowed me to see a part of society that I had not seen before. At events, I was finding myself surrounded by the elite of our society. These men and women were the ones who made or broke candidates before the election even started. I stood in awe of their mannerisms and poise, things that I had only seen in fictional television programs.
-muffinman
