Sunday, June 2, 2024
By:
What an amazing start to the summer! My name is Johnny, and I'm the American Institute of Physics FYI Science Policy News intern. My hometown of Cedar Park, TX is a little hotter and much dryer than this city. I've had a blast exploring Washington, DC so far. It's beautiful, but the cost of living is outrageous here!
Our intern cohort kicked things off with orientation at the American Center of Physics office. At the spaghetti marshmallow team challenge, my cube idea bought us a ticket straight to last place. I would make a terrible engineer!
My favorite part of the office is the rooftop. There's a great mini golf and bocce setup, which was a terrific way to pass the time. The other highlight was the free food they gave us.
I'm super excited by the work ahead for me! Science policy is a big interest of mine, and the FYI team (Mitch Ambrose and Jacob Taylor especially) has been incredible. I've been fortunate to be given assignments that are super exciting and meaningful. The past few days I've been writing up an article about the Department of Energy's new AI initiatives, tracking the Congressional battle over the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, and polishing up different parts of the newsletter for Monday's release. It's certainly been a busy couple of days!
Outside of work, I've been loving my time at this internship so far. I'm having a great time kicking it with the other interns. Muji and I get along fantastically and have pretty much set up the dorm. The interns all walked over to the National Mall a couple of times to hang around. Jaden and I have yet to lose a spikeball match... I hope we stay undefeated. Charles has graciously accompanied me to the weight room, which is crucial because I'm a total noob. People here are so fun and welcoming! I'm thrilled to spend the summer with everyone.
Saturday night, I had a relaxing time chilling with the other interns, and afterwards introduced a few to my favorite card game! We also played spoons and BS. It was a lovely time.
There have only been two setbacks. The first is that I rolled my ankle playing basketball on Friday. Luckily it truly was a very minor sprain. By Saturday I was able to move around and play spikeball without too much trouble.
The second setback was my Trader Joe's run... I was proud of myself for avoiding the bag fees by cramming things in my backpack. Next thing I know, I crushed the quart of milk inside! Thank goodness Jenna got a picture of my failure. It was a real joy washing everything and cleaning out my backpack.
It's shaping up to be a terrific summer filled with funny memories, awesome new friends, and interesting work. Cheers to another week!
Johnny Miri