Today started when the alarm went off at 3:15 this morning. I think I had only falling asleep, so it was a rude 'awakening' for me. Why was I getting up at this time I hear you ask … or not.
Today I was joining about 21 other students from Collin to head to Austin (by bus, hence the early start) to take part in the Texas Community College Student Day, which had been organized by the Texas Junior College Student Government Association which our college is a member of. The purpose of the trip was to highlight to the Texas Legislators that community college students are organized, vote and are tired of funding cuts to their programs. A side purpose was to promote a bill in the legislature that will remove the requirement to pay sales tax on college textbooks (HB257).
I visited both my local reps and both of them were out, or busy (Paxton was on closed circuit television in a committee). It was quite amusing to see so many students wandering the halls of the Texas capitol getting ready to knock on the door and ask “if the representative/senator in?” Quite a sight.
I had a great time, even if I was exhausted by the end. Our region really turned out in force, which was great, not to mention to over 1,000 students who also participated. Our state president has taken the organization to a whole new area with this legislative direction. It's long overdue of course, and I was excited to learn that many legislators were well aware of our issues – which I think is due to a lot of preparation by this guy.
We ended up leaving Austin around 3PM and I fell onto the sofa – after petting the pooches and letting them out – around 8PM. I think I'm going to watch West Wing (keeping in the political thought) and then head to bed.