Rhianna Philcox: Regrets that Turn into Lessons
It was about 10 degrees in downtown Denver, Colorado, on a mid-Monday morning, and I was wandering around trying to find a representative’s office so that I could drop off certificates for him to sign for our students who would be participating in our weeklong program. I had gotten a name from the coordinator in Colorado who knew this representative and an unspecific location of where this office was. So, I looked up on Apple Maps walking directions to the building our coordinator had given me. Arriving at what I thought was the correct building, I walked right to the elevators and from the key on the outside of it, selected the floor that I thought the representative’s office would be on. When the elevator doors opened, I realized this floor was getting remodeled. There was no one on that floor, and there were paint cans and tools strewn around the room. I realized that I must not be in the correct spot. So, I walked back to where we are holding our class annoyed that I could not find the representative’s office and did not get the certificates signed.
This was my third week on the road with this internship. After some growing pains the previous week, I came into this week feeling a little bit more confident. However, that confidence was slightly misplaced and led me to taking more time than needed to find out where this representative had his office because I did not want to ask for help.
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Fast forward a couple of weeks later, I was in West Virginia. It was yet another Monday, I and one other person oversaw teaching the students there during the week about the legislative branch. We were in the capitol building trying to secure a room to hold our quick breakout session in that would teach the students all about the legislative branch. For the students to visually picture what happens, we typically try to take them to the House and Senate floors where they can usually see from behind the ropes all of the desks of the delegates/legislators. However, in this particular situation, we talked with the Sergeant of Arms for the House floor. He allowed us to bring our students on the floor and have our breakout session in the actual House of Representatives since they were not in session. Because we were assertive, confident, and professional, the Sergeant of Arms helped us and allowed us to use the House of Representative throughout the whole week to hold our breakout sessions.
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It was my last class with my internship and was late in the evening on a Thursday in Orlando, FL. I had been working on getting everything prepared for the next day when we would have about 40 students show up ready for us to put on a class needing all the material required for it. By this point, I had pretty much gotten all my responsibilities down. As I was sitting on the floor, another intern came up and asked if I needed help. I politely declined his help knowing that he had work to do himself and that I could get this done.
Immediately after this though, I thought about how in previous weeks I had let my independence get in the way of allowing others to help. To make the most of my last week on the road, I had set some goals coming into the week. These included addressing some regrets that I had from previous weeks like not letting people help.
So, when he offered a second time, I ended up letting him help, and everything was finished a lot quicker than if I had continued doing it by myself. Showing that accepting help can be beneficial and make the process more efficient.
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For my internship, I traveled to state capitols and put on weeklong programs with an organization called TeenPact Leadership Schools, teaching middle and high school students about the political process and leadership. It was a fast-paced internship with a lot of learning happening on the road. During our training, our leaders encouraged us to act confidently. Many times, a group of 13- to 18-year-olds does not get a lot of respect in a capitol building. Therefore, confidence and professionalism go a long way.
However, as the stories above show, while professionalism and individualism are qualities that are valued in the political culture, these attributes are not always conducive to teamwork. I am someone who likes to have it all together and be self-sufficient. I do not want to ask for help or not do something to the best of my ability. However, this internship showed me that it is ok to ask for help. Not allowing people to help me and not being willing to step outside my comfort zone is probably one of my biggest regrets looking back on this internship. There were many missed opportunities for me to grow personally and professionally—like letting people help me with directions or daily tasks— simply due to me not wanting to go outside what I was comfortable with. Though, I do not think I would change these past experiences in my internship if I could. Reflecting on my internship has helped me identify ways for improvement in the future. Regret can be a wonderful teacher. Sometimes it takes doing things the wrong way to see areas that need improvement in our personal lives. I needed to see that I have the tendency to do everything by myself so that I can be aware of that moving forward.
Rhianna is majoring in Public Health and Spanish. She completed her breakaway with TeenPact Leadership Schools and travelled to 10 different states throughout her internship. She plans to graduate May of 2026 and from there pursue a master’s degree.