First Contact

Oh man,

I'm just telling you, every time I go to D.C., it is a whole other experience no matter from what angle it is coming from. It is spectacular, the approach over Regan National Airport is superb, with a grand view of the Pentagon, Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, just amazing. I can't ever get over that. Out of 14,000 High Schools that applied, only 112 students got in, 1 declined. Jeebus.

At the airport, the chaperons were well ready to greet us, very obvious amidst the gray backdrops of Regan's Baggage Claim, but the ride to the hotel was sweet and to the point, and I mingled with kids from literally every state, and I know for a fact that we have a good group as a whole.

I'm an icebreaker, so I pulled out the game of Egyptian Rat Screw and that totally softened the mood, and we talked about colleges, the program, how much we didn't read, who was valedictorian of the class, etcetera, etcetera.

The opening session by Professor Sikkenga was really superb, after dinner of course. He allowed us to analyze the first few texts that we had in much different detail, by analyzing Jefferson's words slowly in his two letters detailing his perception of the Declaration of Independence's significance. In his "Letter to Henry Lee" (May 8, 1825), Jefferson is crystalizing that the Declaration was not just random ideologies just to speak them, but to imortalize that what is common sense. In his "Letter to Roger Weightman" (June 24, 1826), Jefferson is musing that this document will actually be the pillar for a revolution of reason and self-government, particularly in light that the War of 1812 had effectively secured this idea.

We have been split into groups, deemed Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison. Obviously I'm in the kool kid's club with Washington and we are so going to tear butt at this.

We had our group tackle the next question with Professors Hess and Portteus who are amazing people by far. We tried to cover the entire session, but we ran out of time for study sake. We will continue tomorrow, but the National Archives are also coming up. SO PUMPED!!!

I need to go now, and it's pretty frikin late, but I will definitely upload photos and whatever I can to make this even better!

Congressional Academy Log #3: 6/27/10, First Contact

Peace,
Chris Carl

"The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit." - Nelson Henderson (Roomate's [Gavin] Quote)