As each of the nine weeks of our internship passed, I felt myself developing skills and knowledge through my placement office at LA County First District Supervisor Hilda Solis’ Office and through CAUSE’s cohort sessions. I learned about the ability to affect change on the county level from the industriousness of the deputies at the office, and learned about the ways to market oneself, presenting the image one wants to present, from amazing speakers at the sessions. This development was the expected outcome of CAUSE’s program, but what wasn’t assuredly expected was how much I learned from the cohort.
The unique background and personality of each member, combined with the shared passion in Asian American advocacy, resulted in a group that ceaselessly tried to get closer with one another. From my cohort who I can now proudly call my friends, I learned that depending on others wasn’t a weakness. I’m a person who believed that whatever efforts I put in would lead to a result that was some fraction, but never greater than the whole, of those efforts. Thus, although I don’t prefer independence, I was more than ready to rely primarily on myself. However, throughout CAUSE Leadership Academy, here were people who gave me their attention, time, and energy even when I was occasionally too swamped with work to reciprocate. For the first time, I felt my efforts, whether professional or interpersonal, returned in bounds by a group of people who I had only recently begun doing my best to become friends with. Here was a group of people who trusted and cared about me.
60 days before our graduation day, I stepped into a room with 13 other students, telling myself I was ready to meet everyone and giving myself realistic expectations for how the summer was expected to go. Nine weeks is a small period; it’s less than a season, less than a quarter at school, and less than the average time it takes to form a habit. For me, it seemed like a short amount of time to become close friends with people that I knew were likely going to be at faraway places come the internship’s end. I was ready to form transient bonds with everyone, but I wasn’t ready for how close we all became during these 60 days.