Re-Thinking My Relationship With Washington, DC

The night was May 1st, 2011, and I had only sent my family on their way back to Easton, PA  a few hours earlier. I was all moved into my new apartment in Arlington, VA, and I was on my Twitter when rumors broke- Osama Bin Laden was dead. That night, I celebrated outside the White House with thousands of other folks around my age. It seemed as though my time in Washington, DC was going to be great.

It ended up being awful. I hated it. I hated the people, I hated the Metro, I hated the sports teams, I hated the bars, I hated life. In hindsight, much of this was my fault, and not their's. I was younger, and frankly not mature enough to want to live in a place like DC. I was flat broke. I was far less interested in my career, or politics in general, and was more interested in having a good time. I was distracted by other people, places, and things in my life at the time. By the end, I actually wanted out bad enough that I was overjoyed on the day I left.

Fast forward to Thursday, when I arrived in Arlington, to my old neighborhood, around 4 pm. I found my way to Bob and Edith's Diner, one of my old favorites in the area. I had myself a late lunch, and walked around in my old neighborhood. Everything old felt new again. Then I went over to the Southwest Waterfront neighborhood, my other "old" neighborhood, and walked around that region as well. It was like a new place to me. I was truly happy to be back in Washington.

I had begun to re-think if I wanted to be in Washington again around the moment I accepted a position on the Clinton campaign. Quite obviously, I am not going to be joining the next President in Washington now. The thought of it though was quite a leap, five years after leaving the town as fast as I could. I guess I'm a bit on the surprised side.

I will be returning to Washington, DC at the start of December to attend some holiday parties, hang out with some people, and see what is happening next. I could see myself taking a job there again, and possibly returning. I'm not quite ready to say that I want to, but I am quite ready to say i'm open to it. Maybe the Potomac isn't so bad after all.