This third week of the Caminos programming I think has been the most impactful. This would be the week that we all as a cohort focus in on our Community Action Projects (CAP). At this point, the heat is on and everyone is feeling the pressure. Even while we are working on our projects and prepping them for public presentation, we are continuing our class and event scheduling, and making the last moments last.
Looking back now, it all feels like a blur, or a something indistinguishable in your mind; a feeling of love, community, belonging, and learning. That last week we worked late nights and were early to rise for the next morning.
On Thursday, we visited the CHLI (Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute) Leadership Conference. Everyone had woken up early that morning after spending the night making memories and working on their CAPs. Alexandra, Daniel, Priscilla, and I had taken an Uber over to the Rayburn Congressional Office building to accommodate for Priscilla’s being in a wheel chair that was fought for and earned. The four of us had arrived an hour earlier than everyone else and an hour earlier than the beginning of the conference.
We rolled in and through security, and Priscilla got the high honor of using a wheel chair lift at the Congressional house that would later forsake her on her way out. Wheeling through the marble halls, spirits high but bodies weary we go exploring to find the dining hall. One floor down, through a tunnel, up another elevator and through another hall we find the dining hall which was luckily empty for the early morning.
Sitting there with an overly caffeinated iced latte and heavy eyes I began to think. It was amazing that after so many years of work and study that I was sitting in that dining hall for a second time. Each time being on the hill seems to me like a further solidification of a Las Vegas boy’s dreams of a life in the country’s capital. A querer es a poder, and I’m not lacking the want by any means. I am thankful for each moment that brings me closer to those generational goals and aspirations that so many before me have sacrificed for on my behalf.
-Nicolas Rios
