The day before the Inauguration is arguably just as hectic as the Inauguration itself. This morning Allison and I met with Drew Petrimoulx, who is a reporter from KARK 4 News. Since we have appeared on the news a couple times since we’ve been here in D.C., he wanted to follow-up with us and ask about what we’ve learned, what we’ve been doing, etc. When Drew asked me what I had learned throughout my experience in the seminar, I told him that we were learning more and more each day just how easy it is to have respectful discussions with people who have different beliefs than you do. Many people are under the impression that you can’t be friends with someone who is across the political aisle or holds different ideological views, but that simply isn’t the case. The whole point of our seminar was to raise political discourse in a civilized manner, and I think all of the participants have done a great job. The key is to listen if you want to be listened to. All in all, it was a really cool experience to be interviewed in front of the Capitol building, because people automatically assume that you’re important if they see you with a microphone pointed in your direction.

After our interview with Drew, Allison and I went to a the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. We have both been there before, but I had never seen the Last American Dinosaurs: Discovering a Lost World exhibit, and it was incredible! They had scientists who were unearthing fossils under microscopes, fossils of dinosaurs that have been replicated, and walls filled with maps and facts about the featured dinosaurs. Once we had walked through the entire museum yet again, we went back to the Washington Center where we had our last small group meeting. This meeting lasted about 5 minutes because our faculty leader wanted to give us a chance to get good spots at the Inauguration’s “Make American Great Again” concert, which included performances by Lee Greenwood, 3 Doors Down, and Toby Keith. I have recently come down with a pretty severe cold, so I wasn’t able to make it to the concert unfortunately. I watched it live on TV, so I was there in spirit! Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day with gates opening at 6 a.m. to claim inauguration spots, so I’ll be waking up around 4:30 a.m. I am excited to be able to attend!