Jake Powell: A Normal Day in an Abnormal Year

*Telephone rings promptly at 8:30am* 

Jake meets Senator Scott  within the first week of  his internship.

I answer, “Thank you for calling Senator Tim Scott’s office. How may I help you?”

This was a daily occurrence in my congressional internship within U.S. Senator Tim Scott's Office in Washington, D.C.  I would arrive at the Hart Senate Office Building Rm. 104, and before I had a chance to log onto my computer, I would be talking on the phone directly with constituents. As any congressional intern would tell you, many constituents would call before they had their morning cup of coffee, to put it candidly.

It was the second week of January 2020. This was a time when social distancing wasn’t in our daily vernacular, the number of American’s that owned a face mask was close to zero, and the nation had a presidential impeachment trial on the forefront of its mind. By this point, I established a set routine working in the office. From answering phone calls, to assisting office staff, to giving visiting constituents tours of the United States Capitol, my duties in my congressional internship gave me a degree of humility, pride, and joy. 

Jake as he answers  a call from a constituent.

Virtually every political science major’s dream is to have an opportunity to live, study, and work in the nation’s capital, and it certainly was mine. Just as surgical residents dream of the day they step into the operating room as surgeons, just as teacher cadets dream of having their own classroom, political science majors dream of the day they walk the halls of Congress as interns and staffers.

There was one day in particular, just a few days into my internship, where I experienced a real sense of adrenaline. It was a rather normal day as I recall. The phone was ringing non-stop with constitutes—and sometimes non-constituents—calling with their opinions, rants, and input on the presidential impeachment trial. The date was January 21, 2020. It was the very first day of opening arguments in the impeachment proceedings in the U.S. Senate. It was not unusual for staffers in our office to be constantly streaming C-SPAN throughout the workday. I watched and overheard opening oral arguments on their TVs thoughtout the day until about 5:20pm when I began to pack up for the day. However, this rather normal day would quickly become a day that I would look back on as one the most excited days of my internship.

Just before phones shut off for the day and interns and staffers made their way home, my Staff Assistant came to the interns and asked if anyone was interested in tickets to the Senate gallery to watch the proceedings. Many of the other interns in our office had already left for the day. So, I immediately said yes. I didn’t know how to get the Senate gallery. I didn’t know how to get back to the office after leaving the gallery. I still barley knew my way into work every morning. But, I immediately said yes.

My Staff Assistant had two tickets to the gallery. Another intern in our office, who soon became one of my best friends in the office, claimed the other ticket. Like myself, she didn’t really know where she was going, but she knew she didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to witness history. Coming into my congressional internship, I knew it would be a historic one because of the rarity of a presidential impeachment trial, especially interning in a U.S. Senate office. Up to this point, my entire internship had dealt with the impeachment proceedings taking place on the Senate floor. 

Some hallways of the Capitol were closed, many areas were restricted, and news media was everywhere. It was quite intimidating to a new intern that moved to D.C. just three weeks ago. I remember going through security to enter the gallery and thinking, “what are the odds?”. What are the odds that after all this hard work and determination to get to this point, I was about to enter the Senate chambers for the first time to witness a presidential impeachment trail first-hand?

Jake and his fellow intern as they prepare to enter the Senate gallery with their gallery passes.

As I entered the gallery, the usher escorted me and the other intern to available seats. It’s a wonder how I didn’t trip down the stairs because the second I entered the gallery, I was in awe. All fifty U.S. Senators were on the floor. The feeling was very similar to the feeling that most people have when they meet a celebrity in-person for the first time. You always knew they existed somewhere in the universe but seeing them in-person just has a more intimate effect. 

I sat in the gallery for about an hour and a half listening, observing, and taking in the moment. It was a moving experience for me because as I went home that night, I recognized that this day was going to be one that I was going to remember for a long time. I thought to myself, “This day was going to be a day unlike any other in my internship, where I would have a tie to history”. It looked as if the third presidential impeachment trial in United States history was going to be the event that dominated my internship, and for the most part it did. However, I soon realized that the impeachment trial was not going to be the only major historical event of 2020.

What once was a significant national event, quickly became overshadowed by a virus that many knew little about. In the month of March, it felt like every day was a part of history as the world was thrust into a global pandemic. However, there is one thing I kept going back to as the world was changing all around me. I kept going back to January 21st. I kept going back to the moment I said yes to the Senate gallery passes without a second thought. I kept reminding myself that even though everything was changing by the minute, I needed to continue to say, “yes”. In the midst of uncertainty, in the midst of confusion, and in the midst of what seems like chaos, continue to say yes to opportunities. The biggest lesson I learned during my Lander Honors College breakaway experience was, not only to say yes to opportunities as they come to you, but to say yes immediately, without any hesitation. You never know when you will have the chance to be a part of history.

Jake Powell is a senior political science major with emphasis in public administration and minor in homeland security from Greenville, S.C. He completed his breakaway experience within the South Carolina Washington Semester Program interning in U.S. Senator Tim Scott’s Office in Washington, D.C. during the spring 2020 semester. He will graduate from Lander University's Honors College in May 2021, and he plans to move to Washington, D.C. after graduation where he will attend graduate school for a master’s degree in public administration.