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PYIC Presidential youth inauguration conference

I was sent to Washington DC for 5 days to learn and witness a very historic event and meet people from all around the USA to experience it with. I was there to see Barack Obama become the new president. I was there because my teachers had picked me to go to the National Young leaders State Conference in which I learned how to be a true leader and to become one, as of this I was a member of the Cylc in which sponsored the Pylc. I was leaving on Saturday for this event it took us 2 ½ hrs, to get there. I checked in at the Hampton hotel where I would be staying till Wednesday the 21st. My mom and dad were wearing Eagles Jackets and one of my new Faculty advisors started saying how awesome they were and the other FA’s were saying how we beat them in previous weeks. They had told us that we would be riding on shuttles for most if not all our transportation so I had said my goodbye to my parents and got on one.

I had met a girl from New Jersey named Reya she was very nice, had the bubbliest little face and attitude I liked it. Well we had groups of presidents and I had happened to be in Teddy Roosevelt’s group. My FA was George I didn’t know who he was; I thought he was this guy who was an FA that reminded me of my math teacher right away he just talked and talked about the funniest of things like out of no where he was hilarious. So I wasn’t prepared for the walking I had to do. We had to look professional so there were some people who were wearing like high heels and everything I know their feet had hurt because we walked fast and long in the freezing cold. Some people came from places where it is always hot and having this dramatic change in weather was probably one of the worst things that hey had ever felt.

We went to the University of Maryland for our Keynote speakers. There were a lot of kids there and they kept filling in the seats at the arena where we would listen and take part in the speakers. First we had Presidential Historian and author and Pulitzer Prize winner Doris Kearns Goodwin talk about her insights on presidents. She mostly talked about how wonderful Abe Lincoln was I think she had the hots for him because she pretty much told his entire biography. She was the tiniest little thing she was so cute. The entire time I was listening I was acing about a variety of things. How fast we walked there hurt my feet and the chairs how close they were and how uncomfortable they were I almost cried. Anyway I took pictures and videos of her.

Now I have seen the pictures of our keynote speakers previous to the conference. Lisa ling young journalist Special Correspondent, the National Geographic Channel and “The Oprah Winfrey Show” was coming up I remembered hers. I think she looked just like Lucy Liu I was laughing because the first thing that came out of her mouth was “ I just want to say I have never stared in any Charlie’s Angles movies”

So anyway she was a very comical person I mean she started her speech out great. The next thing she did after introducing herself was pull out her phone and she wanted us to take a picture for her face book and say Hi Lisa well this is what she had said “ Oh wait let me take out my phone I want everybody to say Hi Lisa when I say three, oh wait how do I turn this thing on? I may be Asian but I am technology defiant.” Everybody Laughed I laughed so hard it was just too funny. She went on about how she got in the news business at how young she was and that they were looking for young cute people to read the news and how she said she was flattering her self thinking she was cute. We had seen some expeditions that she had done about places where it was just so hard to handle all the impact that had taken over her. She said she had went to places in like trouble and where the smallest of kids were holding guns fully loaded and ready to shoot at anytime, she was so scared for her life no cellular reception at all and it was just so bad that she could barely keep herself sain. I really respected all the things she had told us and how funny it was she was one of my favorites no doubt! She kept bringing up how cute she was and how she thought that men who were a bit feminine were sexy and boys in the crowd would whistle there lips off. There was a boy who had prepared a speech to thank Lisa and He had said “ We thank you Lisa for coming to speak to us and don’t apologize about flattering your self you are cute and I am feminine and free.” Everybody laughed and Lisa went in to the mike and said “Alright!!” Lisa Ling really made the night.

We soon got out of there and we had to find our buses there were 150 there and I had trouble finding it but not much. That’s another thing our FA’s of course expected us to be leaders and well not teenagers or students they pretty much left us out on our own most of the trip. I got on still not knowing who my leader FA George is, My other FA for the bus and group was Karen now she looked like Kathy Griffin a bit I was stunned. I know I am good at seeing these similarities it’s just she isn’t as white as Kathy and she doesn’t have red hair.

Well anyway I had finally met my FA George He was from Jamaica. The schedule had said we should be back at our hotel room for security checks by our FA’s by 11:00pm we hadn’t even gotten back to our hotel till 12:00am in the morning!! I went back to my room to unpack to hear a voice soon known as my room mate; now when I opened the door she was a very nice person she was Asian and a sophomore and her name was Victoria from all the way in California, she had to fly in and missed all of the speeches. The security checks came by and Karen was our security you had to let the FA see you and your room mates faces well there was a predicament with that; she was the shower so she had to come out in her towel soaking wet and Karen just looked down and up at her and was like okay then!

It was Pretty funny so we went to sleep at about 2:00 am in the morning she had woke me up again because a phone call had woke us up and she was talking on her cell at 2:30 in the morning!!! We woke up at 5:00-5:30 am and got prepared for the departure of the busses. Today we were having a real packed schedule on a little amount of sleep. We heard more Keynote speakers. Today we were listening to General Colin Powell. He was a really good speaker he was pretty funny too. He talked about how much of a good experience it was and how wonderful that we can take a part in it. I had met another friend Reeba and we were at the side of the arena in even tighter seats then before and not much better on the comfort either.

We also heard from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and he was a Nobel Prize winner and human rights activist. I though he was going to be some old dude that was going to talked for ever but ironically he set that straight the first second he spoke. He had Said “ Now I may be a pope and we popes may talk on forever and ever but I am not going to do that” He was really cool he made all these dramatic funny pauses and the noises to make us laugh and danced and he said the funniest of things like this one that you just had to be there to witnessed. “Now all you young ones have so many things given to you, the computer I heard you can see many many things on them…. (Dramatic pause) it is excellent... (Gets cut off by laughter) He finally gets what he had said and started dancing and said “I don’t know of what you are laughing about!!!” Then he was telling us about how we weren’t here by mistake that God knew we were here before we were conceived and stuff and started talking as if he was having a conversation with God it was hilarious. He said “You are not mistakes, you are not accidents (pause) Now some of you may look like accidents.” Everybody started laughing. He was a really happy dude and he told us we were V.S.P.’s Very special people and we had to say it over and over again he was one of my favorites too.

Now after we had left we were heading for the presidents opening celebration. This is where celebrities would be performing Beyonce was supposed to but she didn’t. We had seen Bano, Shakira, Mary J. Bilge, and a lot of others. It was very cold there we were at the mall and we watched on the jumbo trons. We were there for a long time but so much disorganization we walked miles to get there and back to the busses and after people were complaining about how bad there feet hurt we happily wanted to get back to our buses but wait not yet. The buses were moved because of traffic so we had to wait for them for an hour and a half it hurt no where but the ground to sit on and our feet and backs hurting; we soon got on the bus. Now each president group went some where different after that, Teddy got to go on a beautiful cruise ship. We ate there and of course danced all night and yes I danced too. Met some new friends and did the slide and cha cha and the most popular songs now and they weren’t the clean version either!!

There was a waiter who amazingly did every single move perfect to Beyonce’s song single ladies it was so good Beyonce would love him. It was amazing I screamed like every time he did a move. My FA’s danced to they dance hot and awesome!! Let’s just say they weren’t professional lol. We danced all night and laughed too. We finally got off the boat and went back to the hotel at 11:30 even though we were supposed to be and hour earlier.

The next day Monday we had group meeting in which we had to work as teams about how we felt about the president and his duties it was really fun and we had to play a game in which we had to find the chalk and George promised the person who found it three dollars I found it easily. We went back to the arena and heard The Creative Coalition which is a group of people who gave us some advice from some quotes of historic people ranging from Anne Frank to Mlk to presidents it was beautiful.
We heard Al Gore speak he was really good he talked about struggle and how we are such strong people.

We then went to a new museum called the Newseum it was pretty cool as you can expect it was all about news stuff. I was on like this little simulation of a news cast and had to tell a report from the top of our minds it was funny. We later had dinner and went back to our hotels and again Victoria forgot about security check and came out in her towel and Karen was like “I always catch you when your in the shower Corissa why don’t you remind her?” she said it in a elated way and I said I forgot!!! We went to bed at 11:30 pm

As Tuesday came I woke up at 4:30 in the morning for the big day. I layered up for the cold. We walked miles to an art museum where it was rented out just for PYIC scholars only. We had all the hot chocolate we could down. I met another Friend Amanda; she was very tall and skinny. We went down and took some pictures of the museum.
Yeah it was fun but totally strange.

So anyway we had thought that we were soon going to go to the national baseball stadium again rented out to us to watch Barack become president on the jumbo tron NO!! I got so mad because my friends had already left about and hour and half ago to try to get a good spot at the mall and I didn’t go thinking heck I will see it at the stadium. So Amanda and I started walking with a map and us no FA’s at all just us a map and a million people. I wasn’t really scared event though there were like officers all around millions of people, and no help from Amanda because she had lost her map and wasn’t the most countable person to lead, she did stick to me like gum on the bottom of a shoe though lol!!

So we were getting closer and closer to when I could see people miles and miles back standing and people waiting. Me and Amanda had a hard time getting anyway in that crowd as you can imagine so many people were touching us and no one to help us out but the people were very polite there even though there was so much confusion. I think it was the most team work I have ever been in, I mean it was glorious how no one was screaming, people were improvising to get out, no one was acting dumb and all in a settled way. I did take deep breathes through out the crowd to settle my self down it really did help. Finally we got in a good place but pretty far from the mall but we could still see the huge TV’s and stuff. We were super wedge in of people around us Amanda and I but the crowd we were with were too hilarious. They said and sung the funniest things; they also helped us out with who was on the jumbo tron because I couldn’t see it very well.

Yeah so you can see how cramped Amanda and I were. Like I said it was pretty awesome but I couldn’t move and my feet hurt but we were so close together I didn’t really have to stand I could just lean on someone and stay up and it wouldn’t feel any different lol. Amanda did get a bit claustrophobic so she had left I had offered to come with her but she didn’t want me to miss the inauguration so I stayed. She made it out all right though! Finally I heard Barack Obama coming out and soon heard everyone yell his name because he became president, until later on that night he to be re-sworn in of course but at least I was there for the first time. We then walked 5 miles to the national stadium got boarded on the buses.

We later went back to hotel and got ready for the PYIC inaugural gala at the air and space museum which again we danced to our concert with songs by Lesley Roy and by none other than Chris Daughtry and I touched his hand he through water in the crowed all over people, I touched an American Idols hand!! The food there were great lots of different varieties of stuff and like I new it there were pigs in a blanket!! We went home about 12 am got a good sleep. I woke at around 7 o’clock up packed, ready to go said my goodbye which always hurts the most hit the road and after 2 and half our hit Lancaster!! This was my awesome trip to Washington DC I hope you liked reading it as much as I enjoyed living it.


By Katara babe 207