Sometimes who you know is more important than what you know....
A friend procrastinated on his visa, so he had to physically rush it to the embassy in DC to get it processed. Luckily for him, his dad was an ambassador for the country. Dad called in, and he was expected. All he needed to do was be at the embassy in 12 hours. He couldn't afford a plane ticket, and it would have probably been too late for that anyways. So, he decided to drive, and he asked me to go along to keep him awake and help drive. I agreed. Carpe Diem.
We got there first thing in the morning, and there were all these other college kids there. They were all dressed in snazzy suits. As it turned out, there was some sort of youth politic convention. All of them were trying their best to get close to all the important people. My friend and I were dressed in t-shirts and shorts. DC summers are hot after all. We didn't know where we needed to go, so we just walked around. As we were meandering, we get recognized (probably because of our clothes), and we get pulled into the back.
We all exchanged pleasantries. My friend got his paperwork processed. When it was all done, one of the ambassadors volunteered to walk us out since his presentation was going to be done on the outdoor lawn. As we were walking about, I noticed the envy of the college suits. I didn't care. It's not like I was there for whatever they were there for.
As we're about to leave, some of the people who were setting up the venue complained that the laptop wouldn't connect to the network. This was still the early days of computing, and not everyone had an IT department. We walked back over and offered to look at the problem. It was a simple network fix. We were then offered to sit in on the event. Later, we got internships. I don't think the college suits were too happy about that.
Sometimes, it's not what you know; it's who you know.
