By Hannah Myers, staff writer (photos by Hannah Myers)
Have you ever been given an opportunity to do something you never thought you would do? It happened to me on Jan. 3 when I visited the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building in Harrisburg for the swearing-in ceremony with my friend Rachael Roae, daughter of State Representative Brad Roae.
To say I was nervous was an understatement. It took approximately four hours to get to there, and with every minute, the butterflies in my stomach grew.
Since I had never seen the Capitol building before, we headed over shortly after we arrived. Representative Roae had access to most of the building, and he graciously showed us around. Every room in the Capitol serves a purpose, and there are so many of them. I also got to meet a lot of new people with various jobs in the Capitol. After taking some pictures, we headed back to the hotel to get a good night’s sleep for the next day’s ceremony.
When we arrived at the Capitol in the morning, we had to go on many errands to prepare for swearing in. Finally, we contacted Rick Leiner who was in charge of all the media for the day. Once I got my media credential, we were all set to go. Rachael and I headed to the House of Representatives to find the perfect seats. The ceremony was very fascinating; I had never experienced anything like it before. Everyone who gave a speech seemed glued on the same idea: “Building a better Pennsylvania.”
“We are all very passionate with our beliefs on how to make Pennsylvania better,” said State Representative Tina Pickett after the ceremony started.
During the meeting, I got to experience the swearing in part and the election of the speaker. About a quarter of the way through the event, I left to take pictures. It took me awhile to get the courage to move around like the other photographers, but I felt honored to photograph such an important event in state government.
