To D.C. and back: Headlight staffer shares insight about journey to nation’s capitol
I was among 12 students from Tracy Area High School who travelled to Washington D.C. last week as part of the Close-Up program. We flew out of Sioux Falls Regional Airport on Saturday, June 6, and returned on Friday, June 12.
The trip was certainly worth going on, but I can definitely attest to the fact that it was not quite what we had expected. I think many of us had made the assumption that this trip would be simply for touring D.C and getting to see all of the iconic monuments, and while there was plenty of sightseeing to be had, that was not entirely what our program instructors had planned for the week.
The Close-Up program, to our surprise, turned out to be one of the greatest educational opportunities of our high school career thus far. We did not only get to learn about the logistics of government, but were also educated on the political power of the individual and how we can take citizen action to make a difference in the issues that we care about.
Upon arrival in D.C., the group of students from our school spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday visiting places that would not be part of the Close-Up program itinerary, which began with orientation Sunday evening. Highlights from these first two days included the National Air and Space Museum and Mount Vernon, which is the location of George Washington’s home, farm, and the tomb in which he now rests.
The program officially began Sunday evening with orientation, when all of the students were gathered to have dinner together in the hotel. At this time, we were introduced to our instructors and many of the other students who all came from high schools across the country. Students came from eight different participating states: Arizona, California, Indiana, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Texas, and, of course, Minnesota.
Teenagers like myself don’t get a lot of opportunities to speak to people outside of our area in the Midwest, and this program opened us up to not only meet these other teens but form meaningful friendships and have interesting conversations about expectations and stereotypes that might not necessarily be true. One girl from Texas remarked on our lack of “Minnesota accent,” and on a particularly hot day, a few from California complained of humidity that they apparently don’t get much of in Coachella.
This was certainly subversive of my assumption that they would be more familiar with the warm weather, but we actually do get a lot of humidity around here, so what we experienced in D.C. was not entirely unlike what we usually experience here in mid-July.
As part of the Close-Up program, we were each assigned to a specific workshop group that we would be spending most of our time with. While two of the workshops had five Tracy students each, mine only had myself and Miranda Larsen, an upcoming senior who had been my hotel roommate. The two of us were in a workshop of 23 people, and apart from each other, we had known none of them at the beginning of the week. By the end of the program, I knew most of their names and which states they were from.
Every time we visited a new place or monument, we would meet up with our workshop group and discuss different topics. Visiting Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s memorials on Monday, we discussed the definitions of words like “liberty,” “justice,” and “equality.” We also talked about the purpose of war memorials: whether or not they actually promoted war, or if they were meant simply to honor our soldiers. We also had seminars and workshops throughout the week where we practiced how lawmakers create policies, how bills pass in a mock congress, and had some interesting political debates.
On Wednesday, everyone split off with their respective schools to visit a few of their own choices and, in our case, meet some of the Minnesota representatives. We began the day by visiting the Supreme Court for a few pictures, and then headed to the Capitol building. Unfortunately, Sen. Tina Smith was too busy to speak to us, but we were able to ask questions of a few of her trusted assistants.
We then ate lunch in the Senate Cafeteria, and went to meet with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who spared us a few minutes in her busy schedule. We took a few pictures, learned some of her opinions and what she thought was important in policy, and then she was quickly swept away to attend an upcoming vote.
Finally, we met with Rep. Michelle Fischbach. She was the least short on time, so her meeting with us was the most relaxed. Speaking with her felt more real, because she spent less time focusing on government and more time just trying to form a connection. Her down-to-earth attitude reminded me that our government officials are not some faraway figures in delegation but just ordinary people.
I think it is very important, especially in politics, to remember that we are all just people with different values and experiences, and that we all have a voice. That is exactly what Close-Up was trying to teach us the whole time.
We finished out Wednesday by touring the Capitol building and the Library of Congress. On Thursday — our final day in the Close-Up program — we visited Arlington Cemetery. This cemetery has certain requirements for burial, including a number of years in military service. The farther back you travel into Arlington Cemetery, the older the headstones are. Some of which belong to soldiers that fought in the Civil War. The real reason we visited the cemetery, however — and what made it my personal favorite destination during the trip — was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is meant to honor all military that went missing-in-action or were never identified and given an official gravestone. It has been guarded every minute of every day since 1937.
A guard serves through any type of weather, day or night, and every hour they perform the Changing of the Guard Ceremony, where another soldier takes over the position. This ceremony, which we got to watch, is so perfectly performed every time that there are physical marks dug into the stone where the guards walk.
I was surrounded by people, mostly high-schoolers, and yet it was so silent during the ceremony. The soldiers’ steps were perfectly in sync, and it felt like there was a world of respect and honor in the air around us. It was one of the most powerful things that I have ever gotten the chance to witness, and if I ever visit Washington D.C. again, that ceremony would be the first thing I would want to see. It was the best way to end our week with the Close-Up program.
