Any time I am really feeling down on DC I go for a nice long run by the White House. I have always found the White House to be an endless source of inspiration. I decided the first time I pressed by little face up against the iron bars that I was going to be here in Washington. That I needed to be here. Last night when I gleefully ran by 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue it was no different. Goosebumps and pure happiness. For me, the White House and all of the other great recognizable monuments don’t represent power or corruption (as my cynical colleagues would say), they represent change. Washington is transient, nothing ever stays the same here. It’s one of the most exciting, peculiar cities in the world. There are always new people, new policies, a new Congress, a new President. It is a city defined less by what stays the same and more by what doesn’t. It’s so very…American. I love it. I love it because I want to be the change. I want to be the energy that drives new policies and the force that shapes new leaders. It’s ambitious and idealistic, but I am ambitious and idealistic, and it’s just another reason why I fit in here. Washington is a city full of people that either want to own the world or shape it. But I don’t just want to shape the world, I will… even if it takes a jog by a big White House to be reminded why.