I was supposed to live in DC for three months. Three months. That’s it. As I come up on my fifth year of living in this lovable swamp we call home, I can’t help but think about why I’m still here.
After college I was lucky enough to score an internship with the Smithsonian Institution, so I packed up my apartment in Seattle and headed east to my Nation’s Capital.
I went from being a three-month intern, to a contractor, to an employee of the Smithsonian Institution, and before I knew it, two and half years had gone by. By this point, DC had started to weigh on me. It felt fast-paced, impersonal, and my god, I just wanted to find a delicious West Coast style IPA. I had already watched waves of friends leave the city, as fellow Washingtonians are all too familiar with, and I thought it may be my time as well. But that’s when something changed.
My then-work wife came into the office one day with cut-up palms from doing pushups on concrete, and she asked if I wanted to join next time. Of course I said “hell yes,” and so it began.
I fell for November Project fast and hard.
I was making friends with new people, seeing parts of the city I never knew existed, and I was getting in better shape than I had ever been while living in DC.
I found comfort in parks, rec centers, and random patches of grass; I knew how to commute edge to edge of the city by biking or running; and I could be heard saying, “It’s 40 degrees, it’s not that cold out.”
Not only had I fallen for November Project, but I had fallen for DC — a city with which I had spent more than two years trying to connect. Because of November Project, I became closer and invested in DC more than I ever imagined I could be. When people back home asked me how I liked DC, my answer changed from, “It’s alright, but I think I’m ready to move back,” to “DC is amazing! The history! The buildings! The humidity! Oh, and I do this thing called November Project!”
We started Plank-O-Clock at our office, I began an after-work run crew, and my 2017 birthday party consisted of my coworkers allowing me to lead them in outdoor fitness while dressed in tagged shirts that said “The Emma Project.” It was clear to everyone that November Project had become one of my biggest passions, and I was spreading those positive, grassroots, free fitness vibes everywhere I went.
Moving to a new city is difficult. Always. But I think there’s something particularly harsh about DC that makes the need for community that much greater. DC is an incredibly transient city where many people spend a short time for internships or a political office term, then they leave. At one point, that was exactly my plan. Finding a way to ground yourself in a city that can have such high turnover is difficult. I had friends and a great job, but for those first two years in DC, I missed the feeling of community.
Fast forward to today. I’ve been a member of November Project DC for a little over two years, and I was recently asked to be a co-leader of my tribe. I am excited for many reasons about this new role, but the biggest one is that I can help to foster a community in which so many individuals are in need of. DC is vibrant, dynamic, nerdy, and beautiful, and I am thrilled to contribute what I can to make this city, and this world, a better place.
