Policymaker

Brandon Figliolino

Policymaker

December 6, 2016

Early Years/Childhood

His childhood is comprised of countless outdoor adventures in his local neighborhood park, where there are giant oak trees, sprawling lawns, and play equipment made out to resemble a farmyard. The days are filled with beaming grins and high-pitched shrieks of laughter. He, along with his few friends, immerse themselves in possibilities and make-believe. He himself is a wizard, harnessing magic to fight for what he believes to be right and just. He’s an architect, drafting the world’s greatest cities, where people yearn to live and recreate. He’s a peace officer, a chef, a hero; he’s everything and anything. He lives in his imagination, and when he collapses in the tall grass after a hard day of playing, looking up at the sun, all he sees is light.

Fifth Grade Field Trip

In fifth grade, his class goes on a field trip to City Hall. Kids are given the opportunity to explore the Council Chamber. He makes his way down the steps, past the rows of bench seating to his left and his right. A podium stands nearby, and ahead, underneath a simple logo, is the vast council desk. It gleams from the spotlights directed overhead. Reaching his hand out, he touches the nameplate that reads MAYOR. He stands there, breathless, observant. The teacher walks up beside him. Smiling, she says, “In this building, and in this room, change happens.”

Sixth Grade Career Day

During sixth grade, the class studies career planning. They learn about budgeting, and practice interviewing for a day of mock jobbing. Dressed in a purple button-down shirt, and black slacks, he heads into the interview with confidence. The interviewer asks him why he is interested in the position. “I want to make change happen,” is his confident answer. He isn’t offered the role of Mayor. They give him the choice of Police Officer, or Radio DJ. He accepts the role of Police Officer. His job at Career Day is still inside “City Hall,” but it’s hard for him to stand at attention, protecting the Mayor as he signs bills into law, including the one where individuals passing the restrooms were required to say, “Mommy, wow! I’m a big kid now,” or risk fines and possible jail time.

High School

He enjoys his classes, for the most part. Home economics, English, and history are the classes in which he thrives. Classes begin at 0700, and end at 1500. He is punctual, and never lingers when the bell dismisses students for the day. Everyone say he’s the “nicest guy” they’ve ever met, but nice guys don’t get dates, and don’t get invited to parties. He, and his smile, blend into the wallpaper, a magic trick of sorts.

College (First Attempt)

Coming from a family of chefs, he decides to embark on a more culinary journey than his friends. First trimester includes a communications course. The professor assigns him the task of studying a speech, and its effectiveness on an audience. He is eighteen now, and is just a few months away from voting in his first US Presidential Election. He opts to write an honors paper comparing the two acceptance speeches of the presidential nominees. As he listens to the future President speak of hope and change, and working as one to accomplish the struggles of today, the interest he once had in being a driver of change resurfaces.

Leadership Academy

Satisfaction is good for the soul, and he lacks it. Most dishes, whether they be chicken cacciatore or mint-crusted lamb, taste decent; they’re better than chain restaurant food, at least. Still, more exciting than cooking are the essays written about different foods required for each course. To better challenge himself, he applies for an elite program within the university. During the interviews, a well-respected businessman on the panel asks him why he’s in the culinary arts, when his writing materials and the way he speaks suggests that he is destined for a different calling. “That’s a great question,” he responds, his voice soft and timid.  

Phone Call

The program coordinator calls him the next day to congratulate him on his acceptance. “They loved you!” she said, “they really, truly loved you!” After thanking her, he takes a walk to his neighborhood park and sits on the swings made out to look like a barn. Around him, the mighty oak trees are starting to bud leaves. A squirrel eats an acorn. It’s dark by the time he decides to go home. A week later, he withdraws from the university.

College- Second Attempt

Writing. Writing is the field in which he needs to study and live, he decides. He is sure of it! He begins his new collegiate career in a liberal mountain town and excels in his studies. Well on his way to completing his major, he takes a course in government. He intends to have it to satisfy a mere requirement for graduation, but soon finds that creative writing and political science are two passions he holds in high regard.

Internship

One requirement of the degree is an internship. A local political party takes him in for a semester. For his hard work, he is rewarded with tickets to see the President speak at a local high school named after another former President. He waits in line for hours, standing in the hot sun, reading his novel. Once inside, he finds a spot with a good view of the stage. A sense of pride overwhelms him as the President arrives. The crowds erupt in applause. It’s him! It’s truly him! Unbelievable! His face has never been so taut from smiling, for the man standing before him inspires him to achieve greatness.

Photographs

During the event, the camera in his hand clicks every few minutes. The photos taken are grainy; the camera’s resolution isn’t great, and there are hands and arms and heads in the way of the POTUS. It doesn’t matter. He finds the highest-quality photo of the batch, prints it, and gives it to his parents to hang in their dining room.

Post-College

He still believes that his calling is in the field of writing, so he applies, and is accepted, into a master of fine arts program out of state. Then, the economy flounders, and his funding is pulled. He has more play money in his board game boxes than he has tangible dollar bills in his wallet. Distraught, he withdraws before classes begin. Instead of learning, he takes time to ask people if they need help finding things. He’s promoted to human resources manager a year later.

Career Change

If there’s one constant in life, it’s change. Restructuring eliminates his job. He finds another in creative marketing, and loathes the man in charge, who insults his intelligence, ridicules his writing talent, and talks with cynicism about his hero. Unemployment lasts only a month. A private company brings him on as a data entry specialist.

SAP

Data entry isn’t meaningful. Customers yell, demanding they be prioritized over everyone else. “How dare that box of phones for which I received substantial discounts on and free shipping not ship overnight! This catastrophe is all your fault!” they shout. Emails from customers are lewd and degrading. There are ways to mediate and police angry folks, and it’s here that he learns how to do it.

Awakening

Around him, the world is changing. There’s new leadership in the government, and in his hometown, development is growing at a steady pace. Large homes encroach upon the old neighborhood, suffocating the meadows and paving the fields in which horses and cattle used to grazed. He’s frightened. Change is happening, but he’s not part of the conversation. Everything is different. Everything is being wrecked, and he can’t stop it. When he looks up to the sky, he sees clouds instead of the sun.

Change Agent

Weeknights, he begins to attend council meetings, public hearings, and planning commissions. Elected officials get to know him. They have conversations, positive ones.

Committee

Spending time at City Hall is enjoyable, mostly, but he yearns to do more. A notice goes out in the mail asking for citizens to apply for various boards and commissions. One catches his attention and prompts his mind to reminisce about his adventures outdoors, playing in the neighborhood park. He writes his application and astounds the City Council with his breadth of knowledge for being a millennial. He’s appointed to the committee, and within less than a year, the committee elects him Chair.

Graduation

Four years pass since graduating college, and he is beginning to feel the urge to return. Sitting next to his family, in a large auditorium on a snowy December day, he watches his younger brother graduate. Reading through the commencement program materials, he sees that the university offers a graduate program in public service. The next day, he sets about researching the program, securing letters of recommendation, and planning to take his graduate record exam, all of this for a second time. He dreams of attending classes, running campaigns, and winning elected offices. When he takes walks through his neighborhood park, he sees that the sky appears brighter than before.

Second Career Change

With the prospect of continuing his education, and the threats of outsourcing growing greater by the day, he begins spending his lunch breaks and evenings in coffeehouses, applying for any and every public service-oriented job he can find, classical music flowing steadily through his earbuds. In between the applications, he wastes time on dating apps. After a few months, he deletes them.

Public Sector

He recalls the time when a former President stood below a sign that read “Mission Accomplished!” in red, white, and blue.  That’s what I’ve done, only better he thinks. He resigns his post and accepts an offer with a county-level government working in the human resources division. In the monthly county newsletter, below his photograph are the words: “Most excited public service employee of all time!” The communications director says that she only needed to look at his smile in the photo to know what caption to write.

First Semester

Graduate school isn’t easy. Doubts permeate in thoughts, waning and waxing like the moon. Volunteering gets scaled back. Evenings and weekends are spent at the library instead of in the neighborhood park. He becomes a sponge, absorbing everything he reads and discusses with his colleagues in class. Despite the hardships, he preserves.

Election

He experiences huge mental stressors when a new President is elected. It feels as though the plans crafted with meticulous care for a county so special are pushed through a paper shredder, the remains lit on fire, for good measure. The individual charged with redrafting those plans isn’t an architect. After several days of feeling withdrawn and hopeless, he is reminded by the ones whom he loves and cares for that he is valued in his community. His smile returns.

Dinner Celebration

His immediate family gathers one December night for a dinner at his parents’ house to celebrate him completing his first graduate school semester with excellent grades. “My gosh,” his grandmother says, “at this rate, you’re going to be Mayor before you know it!” He takes a sip of water, and nods. Out of the corner of his eye he can see the photo he took six years prior hanging on the wall. In it, the President of the United States is smiling, his finger raised in a triumphant show of dedication to being the driver of hope and change. “Thanks, Grandma,” he says, “But I actually have a different job in mind.”

(C) Brandon Figliolino 2016.