Hilltern (n): an intern who works on Capitol Hill
The morning begins around 7 a.m., when my roommate and my's alarms start going off. We groggily roll out of bed, quietly thinking, "Wow, we are not getting paid enough for this." (Joke's on us because we aren't paid at all ha ha ha...) After getting ready, the treacherous commute by metro begins. The pathways to the train are completely clogged with interns who are in town for the summer, tragically failing to scan their metro cards and thus creating a monstrous blockade of interns and pissed off staff members. Once the blocking intern finally gets his s*** together, the herd can proceed forward. Intern badges outward and flailing everyone rushes to be on the 8:25 a.m. train. No intern would ever want to arrive any later than 9:00 a.m. or feel the wrath of the chief of staff.
You would think the lines end with the crazy metro commute but you would be wrong. There is always that one person who stands in the middle of the escalator creating an additional blockade. Once you arrive at your office building, there is yet again another line--this time, the security line. And we can't forget the one intern who brought his "unloaded pistol" with him to work on the Hill this summer.
After the commute comes the work day. The staff members really make or break the hilltern. I am personally very lucky to have an amazing staff who has showed me the ways of the world (the world on the Hill that is), but of course there are always the horror stories of interns who felt they were more of fraternity members than interns during their days on the Hill.
My favorite part of working on the Hill is attending hearings and committee meetings. This is definitely one of the most valuable learning experiences as an intern and I highly encourage everyone to take advantage of them.
The best time of every intern's day is lunchtime, where you get to go to the ever-so-lavish Longworth cafe and gossip with your fellow intern friends over intern shenanigans. Us interns can spot each other from a mile away (and frankly so can everyone else).
After lunch means counting down the hours and minutes until the best hour of all: happy hour. Let's face it, the staff members are doing it too. Nothing feels as good as running off to happy hour with fellow intern friends at 5:00 p.m. after a long day of work.
