If opportunity doesn’t knock build a door.
Julianna Rittenberg has always sought out inspiration and drive to keep herself going.
She covered the wall surrounding her bedroom mirror with countless Post-it notes with phrases over the summer between her freshman and sophomore years of high school.
By the time she graduated from high school, the entire wall was covered in posters. Julianna would see the phrases around her mirror when she looked in the morning before heading off to school.
Julianna found inspiration in literature, TV characters, politicians, and statements she found on Pinterest. They helped her get through the late-night homework sessions.
Since she was sixteen, her favorite quote has been, “decisions are made by those who show up.” It encapsulates what she wanted from her life.
Julianna always want to be in the rooms where decisions are happening so that she can be impacting positive change as she knew it does not do any good to complain on Twitter if actions are not behind it.
At the top of my quote wall was a row of pictures of Washington, D.C. The end goal was to get here. So now that I am here, what happens next?
Since getting to Washington, D.C., Julianna has been working to find herself a new inspiration and motivation once she gets back to school. Every day when she takes a walk home from work, she passes the U.S. Capitol, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Library of Congress.
“It is impossible to not feel incredibly lucky when you take that walk. It is impossible to not feel like I need to do whatever I can to make sure I am back after graduation”, said Julianna.
Julianna finds inspiration all around her, she finds it in her housemates, who have quickly become great friends, she found it in the other Victory Congressional interns as she sat around on ‘National Coming Out Day’ telling her stories.
She finds her inspiration in all the queer people she works with and meets every day, who are living as themselves, unapologetically, in the space she’s working in as she consider the weight of the many decisions made in the halls she walks through every single day.
Julianna finds it in herself as she considers what she has accomplished to get there and what she will accomplish next.
Perhaps the coolest thing that happened to her so far in the internship has been going to a book signing at Politics and Prose.
Ms. Jen Psaki was the moderator, Mr.Cody Keenan the author, both worked in the Obama administration, and there were several other previous and current White House staff present.
Julianna has been reading books by these individuals all through high school and college, looking to them for an idea of what her career path could look like.
Suddenly being in the same room as them and talking to them, getting advice from them, this was a moment of major inspiration and motivation.
Julianna wishes to work as hard as she can to be in the same room as people she has been reading about.
