Aug 25, 2008 By Spreeha Debchaudhury - La Jolla Light
Imagine, for a moment, a beehive. The busy worker bees scattered to and fro, going in and out of the hive, all working diligently on their various tasks. Some are helping to build or rebuild the hive, some gathering honey for the queen, some converting sais honey into beeswax or tallow.
Now consider the Pepsi Center, site of the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The "hive" of the Democratic party for the week of Aug. 24-29, on the last day leading up to the opening day of the DNC, the Pepsi Center was positively buzzing with people of all sorts. Cameramen, journalists, a near-phalanx of policemen, even protesters were all gathered around the building that would be America's focus for the next week.
All this people were gearing up to perform their respective jobs at the convention. Even the protesters, the so-called disrupters of the DNC, had their own vital task to perform. After all, what would a high-profile goverment event be without its protesters to attract the media's attention?
Prep Day, as I called it, was also the day we checked into the Millenium Hotel and had our orientation. I was so excited to meet both the program coordinator Jeff Dunn and the director of the student correspondent program, Dr. Stephen Caliendo, who had both been so incredibly awesome and helpful to me in the weeks preceding the convention. I was a bit disappointed to hear that we probably wouldn't get into the convention floor without getting some credentials from delegates who had some to spare, but still totally pumped for the experience I was about to have, and the fact that I'd get to see Obama's historic speech at Invesco Field on Thursday.
All in all, Prep Day wasn't all too exciting in itself, as it was primarily for us to get settled in and ready for the rest of the convention, but it left me sleepless with anticipation as I awaited my first delegate breakfast that I'd have to leave for by 5:30 in the morning.
Now that's what I call cruel and unusual punishment--call the Supreme Court!
Spreeha Debchaudhury Spreeha Debchaudhury will be a senior at La Jolla High School this year. She was selected by the Junior Statesman Foundation to attend the Democratic Convention and will be posting reports from Denver on our Web site.
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