Prom

another year...another february...another excuse to don the tuxedo and head out to tysons for the winston health policy ball.

ever since my first visit in 2008, as a naive and wide-eyed young staffer, i've looked forward to this event each year. this year was particularly rewarding as i had to wrangle my way into the ball as a guest of a friend so as to not rankle the unusually strict reading of the ethics rules my boss had. but i wiggled my way around the rules and was able to bring out my tux from the corner of my closet and pull out my shining black dancing shoes (though no dancing was to be had).

but what i really took away from this year's event was the growth i've had since 2008. i remember that first year, not knowing anyone besides the few coworkers and staffers in a ballroom of hundreds. so new that no one really wanted or needed to talk to us...with only a few lobbyists making their a work-demanding effort to reach out to us junior staffers only because we were of the finance committee.

then moving onto that second year, with the entire health world reeling from the uncertainty of a post-scott brown era. with the bill languishing in the freezing nights of snowpocalypse, we gathered in the ballroom all a bit more somber and what a party should have been.

but this year, full of energy and with a new and some more respectable role as a true health care staffer, i realized that i knew a lot more people and was able to walk down the hallways and not feel as if i was that freshman in high school who didn't know anyone as the seniors and popular kids mingled and ignored you. instead, this year i was able to inject myself in conversations as opposed to having be introduced.

by no means do i feel like i've made it, but there are minor moments in my day-to-day where i do feel that i've done something. that i haven't just been a prop in the ever changing moments of life. and those days aren't too bad.