A Perk to Being in DC, Getting invited to California!

Did I say last week was the best week of my life? Hands down this week topped it off! I’ve been talking a lot about my time in DC but this is a great time to tell you about opportunities that may arise while you’re living in DC. I was invited to attend the Young America’s Foundation in Santa Barbara California for the Enemies of Freedom Seminar. My senior thesis is Reagan’s impact on ending the Cold War, so I really lucked out being able to attend and hear both sides of the story during the Cold War. We also got 7 books about this subject so I barely need to check out additional sources at the library! I was apprehensive about the seminar because for the first time in my college career I had someone paying for my flight and all of my expenses to hear amazing speakers, and on a minor detail it was in California! I wondered to myself is this a vacation or a seminar? I’m so confused!

When I arrived there was a group of students waiting to be picked up by the organization. We made small talk and I came to realize that the majority of the people there were from elite institutions like Harvard, Princeton, Berkeley, Pepperdine, etc. I was immediately intimidated. Not because I’m ashamed to go to the University of Wisconsin, but Harvard has a much nicer ring to it! In one word it tells everyone how hard you’ve worked which is well deserved for the few thousand students that get to attend there each year.

Group Dinner at the Center with John Aquilla

We started out the weekend taking a tour of Ronald Reagan’s ranch. You’d be so surprised how humbly the Reagan’s lived. Especially considering how much heat Reagan got about him corrupted by greed. Gorbachev made it up the winding mountain once to meet with Reagan and he even didn’t understand why a President would live so simply. Random fact: he has a liberty bell as a shower head. A fascinating thing about going to a persons home is getting to see their reading materials. Reagan was such a well rounded person and it showed with his book collection. My favorites were books by Barry Goldwater and Whittaker Chambers. We also got to see Reagan’s rides, not just cars but his horses too. There were tons of trails for him and Nancy to go riding on around the land. Apparently it drove the Secret Service nuts because they couldn’t keep up with them.

Entrance to Reagan's ranch

We had several speakers throughout the weekend from very diverse backgrounds. We had every one from former General of the KGB Oleg Kalugin to Chief speech writer in the Reagan administration Tony Dolan. In my pictures you’ll see a picture of me and these two gentlemen having lunch together in the airport because both of them live in the greater DC area so we were on the same flight home! We all exchanged information, so I can ask them more questions for my research paper. Dolan invited me to two upcoming events with Fred Thompson and Newt Gingrich! I’m already predicting that that day may be the best day of my life. Tell me I didn’t land a Royal Flush?! We also heard from several other speakers such as Michael Reagan, Tomas Pompowski, John Aquilla, Nonnie Darwish, and Peter Schweizer. If I went through their credentials this blog would be 5 pages long!

The speakers

After this long exciting weekend, I’m headed back to DC. I loved California, but I definitely didn’t need to be pulled out kicking and screaming because DC is more my speed. And we have off of work tomorrow for COLUMBUS DAY??? We acknowledge Columbus Day in the Midwest but I’ve never had a day off because of it. I’ll be the first to say I don’t think he’s worthy of a holiday, but if it means I can walk around DC and be a tourist again I’m all for it!

Always making time for fun...