At a Policy Salon, our cohort had the pleasure of meeting Greg Schultz: Former Senior Advisor to Vice President Biden and Special Advisor to President Obama. Aside from having quite the resume and a wealth of D.C. knowledge, Greg has an extremely relaxed candor. It was an honor to hear him speak about his career - but for me that wasn't the key takeaway.
As we peppered him with light-hearted questions about Joe Biden (which ranged from "What's his favorite ice cream?" to "Does he like the memes about him?") we suddenly found ourselves in deeper waters.
One student asked a question that referenced Biden's past hardships and the loss of several of his family members. Greg Schultz started the answer with what is, apparently, one of Joe Biden's favorite adage's:
"If everything is important, nothing is important."
Everything that we talked about during that session was interesting and engaging, but this hit me from a different angle. It's easy to say that something is important, especially in a program like WAIP, where the majority of your daily activities are (for better or worse) already mapped out.
Doing your laundry is "important". Meeting deadlines is "important". Networking is "important". Community service is "important". Rushing through the metro between work and class is "important". But that's not the stuff that counts; not by a long shot.
This program is challenging me in a lot of ways, but the biggest battle I've had is asking myself that uncomfortable question: what is important to me? At first I was unsettled, because I didn't really have an exact answer. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I am a little too generous with my use of the word "important". While I still don't have the answer to this question nailed down to a science, I'm confident that the answer will come in time.
Besides, I'm a Buckeye - I've got that much going for me.
As we peppered him with light-hearted questions about Joe Biden (which ranged from "What's his favorite ice cream?" to "Does he like the memes about him?") we suddenly found ourselves in deeper waters.
One student asked a question that referenced Biden's past hardships and the loss of several of his family members. Greg Schultz started the answer with what is, apparently, one of Joe Biden's favorite adage's:
"If everything is important, nothing is important."
Everything that we talked about during that session was interesting and engaging, but this hit me from a different angle. It's easy to say that something is important, especially in a program like WAIP, where the majority of your daily activities are (for better or worse) already mapped out.
Doing your laundry is "important". Meeting deadlines is "important". Networking is "important". Community service is "important". Rushing through the metro between work and class is "important". But that's not the stuff that counts; not by a long shot.
This program is challenging me in a lot of ways, but the biggest battle I've had is asking myself that uncomfortable question: what is important to me? At first I was unsettled, because I didn't really have an exact answer. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I am a little too generous with my use of the word "important". While I still don't have the answer to this question nailed down to a science, I'm confident that the answer will come in time.
Besides, I'm a Buckeye - I've got that much going for me.
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