Merriam Webster Lies

Before I moved to Washington D.C., I had an idea of what I thought Public Service was. It was pretty close to Merriam Webster's third definition of public service: governmental employment. A very ignorant definition of public service, I will admit. All of my ignorance and I moved to Washington D.C. and myself and my idea of public service both went through some major and much needed changes.

I intern for a public servant or as Merriam Webster puts it, a government employee. My job revolves around constituent services; I listen to what constituents want from their congressman, I give tours of the Capitol to constituents visiting Washington D.C., and I pay attention to the needs of organizations in our district. Before I moved to Washington D.C., I had no idea what kind of impact these small public service duties could have.

It wasn’t until I experienced it for myself that I knew how important true and real public service is to a community, no matter how small the impact is. When I started in the Congressman’s office, they handed me a huge organizational problem that the office was having and gave me the responsibility of fixing it. It was stressful and hard, but I was determined to fix it.

Each Congressional office receives one “Member Pass” a month to get 6 constituents into the White House. One of my responsibilities at my internship is scheduling and planning trips for constituents who are visiting Washington D.C. When I fixed the organizational problem the office showed their appreciation by giving me the honor of picking 6 special constituents to use our one “Member Pass” for the White House. There was a family from our district who called me asking if there was anyway they could get a White House tour. It was a Father with three daughters. He explained to me that he was a veteran and he was trying to give his daughters a lifetime of experiences while their mom was deployed. When I called them and told them that it would be an honor to me to give them the “Member Pass”, I could hear his daughter's screaming and giggling in the background and he was in tears.

This is what Public Service is to me. This isn’t something that Merriam Webster could put into words. This isn’t simply “government employment”. This isn’t something that could be measured or put into a statistic. This is something that has a real and meaningful impact on someone’s life.

Even though I’m just intern, I was still able to participate in true public service. It was something really small that was anything but small to the family.

The last two spots of the member pass will be used for my mother and grandmother. They will be touring the White House with the father and his three daughters. I worked really hard this summer, with no paycheck, but having the honor of meeting this family and watching them tour the White House with my mother and grandmother (who has never been to Washington D.C.) is absolutely priceless.

What I’ve learned this summer is that you can’t put a price on public service. Even though this internship was challenging, I would go back and do it three times over if I could. I want to dedicate my life to public service because this summer has made me realize it’s so much more than being a government employee and getting a paycheck.