We all know that guy who acts like he is never stressed. He always plays it cool, and has a very "go with the flow" attitude. Well, that guy is a liar. I know, because I used to be that guy. I remember a time when I acted like there wasn't anything major going on in my life, and that I didn't have anything to worry about or be stressed about. I remember that because it wasn't very long ago that the "go with the flow" part of me died. "Why did it die all of the sudden?" you ask yourself. Well don't fear, reader, because I am about to tell you.
Most college students will say that school or their major stresses them out, but I've never had those issue. I picked a major that I love, and took classes that covered what I was passionate about (I also never took a class before 9:30 a.m.). In fact, I felt that I had so much free time on my hands that I wanted to get involved in something outside of school. Luckily for me, an election is coming up and there are plenty of candidates who need volunteers.
There was one candidate in particular that I absolutely fell in love with. I resonated with everything they were saying, and really felt that they could bring the change that America needs. I knew that I wanted to help make sure this candidate got elected, so I emailed their national office to ask what I could do to help. I expected it to be a little while before I heard back, in fact I didn't expect to hear back at all if we are being honest. So of course it came as a huge surprise when the next day I had an email back from the office. I expected it to give me some events I could go volunteer at, or a link where I could donate money. Instead, they replied saying that there was no one in my area currently working to help college students get involved on the campaign, and they asked if I would be a Community Organizer.
I had no idea what that meant or entailed or anything, but that didn't stop me from saying yes on the spot. There are no words to explain how excited I was. I was being asked to be a part of a political campaign, and help other people get involved too! For a college guy who wasn't super sure what he wanted to do with his life, this was the opportunity of a lifetime.
There is no real way to prepare yourself for a campaign, though. Sure, there are shows like "House of Cards" and "The West Wing," but they don't show the grunt work that a large portion of the campaign is. The first email I got from my "boss" was the longest email I have ever received in my entire life. I didn't know that emails could be as long as this one was. In the email was laid out everything that I would be doing and needed to do over the course of the next few months.
Immediately, I regretted saying yes to this position. That shift of feeling -- from being extremely underwhelmed to extremely overwhelmed -- in a matter of minutes is terrible. From organizing events, knocking doors, making phone calls, and attempting to fundraise, the work seemed endless. Yet even though I say all of this, I loved every single second of it and I have learned more in these last eight months working on the field than I ever would have in a classroom.
The one thing I wish I had going into this line of work, though, was a warning -- a warning that from now until election day your life revolves around one person. Everything you do, you are doing to help get that person elected. Yes, it will be rough, and you will be tired. You will be cussed out, and yelled at by strangers, but when you look at those poll numbers on election night and see that your candidate won, you will know it's because of you. Unfortunately, I didn't get that warning; I had to learn it myself.
There were times that I questioned what I was doing. Times when I hadn't seen my friends in days, or forgot what sleep even felt like. Times when I forgot that I hadn't had anything to eat in a day or so. But there were also times when I was gathered in a room of thousands of people who all supported the person I was working for, and I was able to see the actual impact that I was making. That moment is worth countless sleepless nights and meals forgotten.
The best and worst part about working on the field, though, is that no one will ever know it was you. There is no way to actually show the impact that field organizers, volunteers, and workers have on the outcome of a campaign. So you are left with the fact that you know it was because of you that your candidate was standing where they were, but only you know it. The field team is the literal Spider-Man of the campaign trail. Except, instead of Uncle Ben telling us that "with great power, comes great responsibility," we have the field directors saying to us, "Welcome to politics." This is not at all meant to discourage you from working on a campaign, yes it is stressful, but I promise you will never have as much fun in your entire life. Go out, and get involved, help the people who you believe will make a difference. Just remember the most important words that anyone on a campaign staff will tell you: "knock every door."
