me in the white house

I have always wanted to see the inside the white house- who doesn’t- right?  About 6 yrs ago, I totally thought it was going to happen for sure. after being awarded the asian-american “excellence in business” award from our Illinois state treasurer at that time, judy baar topinka, I actually got an official invite from president bush to come to the white house for a special asian-american pride event!  I was so excited!  Even though I had never been to dc, and didn’t have much money to get there, I jumped on the chance, splurge for a plane ticket, borrowed a suit, found a cheap hotel, and flew right out!  It was a pretty neat event?  I just wish he didn’t keep us confined to the lawn the whole time, it made me wanted to see the inside even more!

2 yrs ago I thought I might have a shot again when the dean of my law school invited me to join him and a special group of attorneys to be sworn in before the united states supreme court!  yes, crazy, by the supreme court justices, and yes, scary, that means I can argue before the united state supreme court now!  Anyway, somehow I thought that meant I would have some sort of all access pass to see the white house too, but ya, that was a pretty silly thought- not the case at all.  They laughed at me.

My third time to dc was my trip to witness obama’s inauguration 6 mos ago.  Now, I knew there was no way in heck that I would see the inside that time, but standing in front of the white house in awe, respect & admiration for 8 freezing hours that great day only made my desire to walk in to the white house (to get warm and just sit on a couch or something) turn into an obsession. 

Well, as you can see from the picture above, that day finally came this week!   And it was everything I ever thought it would be, and much more.  It was magical, historic, beautiful, grand,… all I wanted to do was pick my favorite room, find a couch in it, sit and take it allllll in… and it was amazing!  The part I never expected was that it would have so much life, action and positivity and that it would be lead by so many great Chicagoans working there, and that they would be so real, and so… nice… to me?  I don’t know, it was just great- all I can also say was I thought I would be all about me admiring history while there more than anything, and instead, all I could feel was energy, work & promise for the future- and now I am just obsessed with being a part of all that- and it feels pretty great.