Travel Day Wrap-up

What a hectic and long day it has been! I’ve been up for approximately 35 hours and I cannot believe I’m still going. After a long flight to the east coast and our initial battle with the 15 degree weather (definitely an impossible challenge for a Palm Springs desert rate like myself to acclimate to), Brittney and I were finally able to settle into our hotel and orient ourselves with the crazy itineraries that UPIC put together for us. It seems that our schedules don’t really afford us the time to even blink! As you will see, tomorrow’s agenda is crazy, but amazing:

4:30 AM wake-up
5:15 AM breakfast at the hotel
6:00 AM board the bus for University of Maryland to see Gen. Colin Powell
8:00 AM seminar with Colin Powell
10:45 AM seminar with James Carville and Mary Matalin
12:15 AM press panel with some of D.C.’s elite journalists who covered the
campaign trail
1:20 PM lunch
1:30 PM Inauguration Opening Ceremonies with performances by Beyonce,
John Legend, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Garth
Brooks, and much more!
The rest of the evening is left to our own leisure, as we are open to explore Washington, D.C.’s monuments, memorials, and other famous landmarks.

Tonight, we kicked off our conference with a memorable presentation by Luke Russert, of whom I am a huge fan. He made it a point to show every one of the 5,000 scholars in the room how much of an impact the youth has on the nation’s decisions, and he clearly backed it up with remarkable statistics provided by the results of the 2008 election. Luke illustrated that our young age group has made Barack Obama an American icon and our generation’s Bobby Kennedy just because of the efforts we put forth to make this election so important.

With such a great welcome from the conference, I am looking forward to tomorrow… hopefully I’ll be able to function after it! : )