Easily the best experience of my life

Pictured: Me (left) meeting a distinguished individual, Indy 500 (center), at the Capitol city legislative building. Cheers to leaving your comfort zone 🥂!

Before Rowe Law and the 82nd session, I had no idea what I wanted to be. When discussing future careers, I always shied away from the topic because truthfully, I couldn’t articulate all of my desires and then translate them into a suitable career. I had no idea what I could be, only what I should have been doing, and that left me stunted and wanting. I wanted to help others, I wanted to make meaningful, long lasting change, I wanted to exist in a fast paced environment that allowed me to meet others with similar goals. Coming from my background, these just weren’t jobs, much less lifestyle careers, that were even feasible. I thought I wanted too much, so why bother? College itself existed on a distant horizon that I had to continuously paddle towards to make a reality. Even during this internship I was paddling with great effort, but something had shifted before my eyes.

It’s because of Rowe Law and this internship that I now see what I can do. Everyday was different, and every assignment was meaningful. Even a tidal wave of work left me feeling fulfilled and valued by not just my surroundings, but also the high-standing individuals I met everyday, each different in their careers but just as content. From social work, higher education, lobbying, family and gaming law, to even work like building staff, attachees, assemblymen, and senators, I’ve been exposed to careers that I feel confident about approaching. It’s no secret that I stalled a bit while pursuing my degree. For the first time in my life I was feeling something like “burnout”, and I had no idea what the culprit could be! As I reminisce about what I’ve learned, I see now that I was too hard on myself while funnily enough, still lacking discipline. I feel everyone can benefit from retroactive empathy, it’s the only way we can actualize growth. While speaking with my supervisors, peers, even the other interns of my site, there was a common theme of misdirection. We weren’t “lost”, and there was no wrong path to go down, we just hadn’t fully idealized ourselves.

One moment that stands out to me is a member of the Vegas Chambers, a prestigious organization with no shortage of educated, experienced employees, who confidently admitted that his degree was put on hold when he was my age. He reasoned the man who had the degree he was initially pursuing was not “shaping into the man he figured himself to be”, and he changed courses accordingly. My mind was blown at the thought. He was so jovial, too, about taking a year for himself, pursuing an English degree and then going to Law School when he realized arguing is much more beneficial to his wants than writing. I didn’t say it then, even though I agreed, but I felt the exact opposite. To change so suddenly bewildered me, but it was ultimately exactly what I needed to hear. Over all forced platitudes, all sympathy, it felt wonderful to know that the best thing I could do for myself was be “wrong”. Because, should I find I was wrong about myself, then that meant there was a right way to be, and if I behaved in a way that was right, then that meant there was hope for even someone like me.

At the end of the day, 65 is not old, and neither is 50, nor 30, so why am I worried about being a proverbially “baby” without a set plan?

My day consisted mostly of memo writing, note taking, running errands, setting appointments, and being a good-natured intern for my supervisors to nonchalantly display to clients who assumed they had seen it all. Despite all of this experience required to write a successful, impactful memo, the articulate, well thought out arguments and conversations I had with people so far above me, I realized that English was my true calling through just texting my supervisors. In this career, communication is key (like every career, honestly), and I found myself frequently cooling my nerves in order to send a message with no grammatical errors, nothing too inappropriate for an intern, and especially one that came off as casual but alert. If someone wants to go far in this environment, then exposure to political science and governmental affairs are a must. However, it’s never outwardly acknowledged how beneficial English courses are for succeeding. So many times I could have potentially embarrassed myself (and- times I have) due to a lack of understanding of conventions and expectations regarding grammar and language. For instance, this career relies heavily on already accepted language, a bill can “amend and do pass”, but if you’re not already familiar with that phrase or the process, you may write over and over “amen, and due pass”, (In my defense, they had held a prayer before this meeting, so it’s a mistake anyone could have made!) and have to be sat down by your advisor as they hold back their laughter to explain what the problem is.

Incoming interns, please do not be afraid to ask plenty of questions. A lot of obvious questions, even. This whole process has made me much more comfortable with the idea of “knowing what I don’t know” and learning accordingly. Why bother with attempting to learn things you’ve never experienced before on your own when you have an office of professionals around you who deal with similar problems daily? What I hadn’t known, the things I stayed up over long nights racking my brain until I banged out mediocre -often times, wrong- answers to concepts that hadn’t even crossed my supervisor’s minds. Because I was hyper aware of what I didn’t know, I tried really hard to make up for things I realized I didn’t have to know. All this to say: it’s easy to overthink when you spend more time in your head and not listening.

However, these are intrapersonal skills you can acquire on your own to be successful. To even enter this field, a dedication to education is of the utmost importance. Everyone in that office had at least one masters, not to mention the multiple bachelor degrees that hang proudly on the wall above every desk. You will need an undergraduate education in a field like political science, english, or pre-law, but above that, you’ll need a masters in a corresponding field to compete with other lobbyists, or a law degree to be truly considered. My supervisors had about 10 degrees between the three of them, and even then they were always discussing pursuing even higher education. It’s something to consider, because you’re never done learning in this field, so don’t even consider stagnating or getting too comfortable. However, this career will teach you that being uncomfortable isn’t a bad thing. Sometimes, it’s for the best, actually.

Despite throwing myself into a totally different career path, despite uprooting my life and education to head to the capitol, and despite the loneliness I sometimes felt while still caring for family who needed me, the hardest part of this experience is that it’s ending soon! I am forever grateful for what was exposed to me while I was out here, but also things I had never seen back home.

When my Grandmother found out about our good fortune, she began crying. It was a momentous task to hide it from her, she has eyes on us always, and she reminded me that opportunities like these don’t come often, so be uncomfortable for now. Although it was said only in love, there was this sudden undercurrent of sadness that we couldn’t free ourselves from as we sat together. I was only the way I was because she was right. No one in my family had ever been to Carson City before this, and it was a little overwhelming knowing that every picture I took was the first time my families’ collective eyes had seen them. The commute to my internship site was beautiful, and as I described it to my parents I didn’t have any landmarks to trace it back to in Las Vegas. Although, I wasn’t alone, I was just so far ahead, and this is what they wanted for me.

That is why this internship was pivotal to whoever I end up becoming, because I know now that this is a feeling that I want to chase. I enjoy being a distinctive Muhammad-Henry, a trailblazer, and I like looking back and seeing who’s climbing the path I’ve paved.

Thank you for reading this long ol' post 🤠🤧