Lunch with my Idol

Most state governments are filled to the brim with older white men, but there is one representative in the Georgia State Legislature stands out. She grew up a Democrat in Mississippi, is African American and went to Yale Law School, and...she's a closet writer.

 

Normally, these facts would make me admire her from afar, appreciate what she's doing for the good ole' state of Georgia, thank God that there is at least one smart person working on the decisions that affect our daily lives. However, I discovered that there were other interns in the Capitol that were just as awed by her as I was...and today, this seemingly normal Friday, we had lunch with her.

 

I crutched to the restaurant with a certain trepidation. Suppose I found out that she wasn't as brilliant as I thought? Suppose she could care less about the questions of a lowly college student? Suppose that I said the wrong thing, tried to draw too many parallels? My suppositions all proved irrelevant, of course. The Representative Of My Dreams was far too amazing to even come close to confirming any of my fears. She talked adamently about the 'good ole boy' system we have here, about what it was like to come in as a black female. She discussed her decisions that led her to law school, how she never wanted to be a lawyer, how she cares just as much about her writing as she does her work in the legislature. And then, glory of all glory, she told us that we simply must do this again sometime.

 

And then...if that invitation wasn't enough...she demanded that I have my manuscript ready for her to read by the next committee meeting we have together.

 

Today I had lunch with my idol, and it was everything I could've dreamed. (sigh).