Cody to Capitol Hill:
By: Matthieu McCarty
It was a regular, long, hot summer day. I was outside when I heard the news. I had been accepted to be a kid working on the U.S. Senate floor. Otherwise known as a U.S. Senate Page.
I applied in April of 2025, requesting to participate in the Fall 2025 session. Pages are high school juniors who help out the Senate, and only a handful are chosen each year. I knew my chances weren't good, so when the acceptance letter came, I could not believe it. What I can vividly remember is that I was standing there outside, feeling the hot sun, and I forgot how tired I was. All I could think about was what this actually meant. I was going to Washington, D.C. I was about to walk on the same floor where history was made and where some of the most powerful people in the country worked. I could not believe it, I had to keep reading the email over & over.
I could not honestly sleep much that night; the thoughts of what I would be doing were keeping me awake. I realized I had to lock in because while everyone else was going to be worrying about classes starting or what school was going to be, I was worried about working in the U.S. government.
Fast forward to the day I leave, everything is packed, and my mind is running non-stop. I had to fly out of Billings to Minneapolis and then straight to Reagan National. But it wasn't until I landed in Reagan that I realized where I actually was (and also how much I disliked the humidity). When I stepped out of Reagan, my aunt and uncle, and I arrived at the hotel, I had to understand that this city environment is now my day-to-day life.
A few days later was the big moment, registration at my new home (which was called Webster Hall). It felt as if I was going to college, we made it up to my dorm and had to set up everything: the bed, my closet, my drawers, etc. I met my roommates that day, too (yes, I had roommates). They were some of the coolest people I've ever met. At the end of the day, and all the orientation fluff, my aunt and uncle left for Cody, Wyoming, and I went to bed soundly knowing that it all starts tomorrow.
So it did. Everyone had to be up at 5 AM, eat breakfast, and go to school (which was in the basement and started at 6:15 AM!) After school was what everyone was looking forward to, though. It was 9:30 AM, and we were taking a walk to what is called the Hart Senate Office Building. When we arrived there, we took the subway underground to the U.S. Capitol. All of a sudden, I was in one of the most important buildings in the country, and if that was not crazy enough, they had us casually walk out onto the Senate floor, where we would begin training. Training was wild; we had to practice how to make copies of papers for Senators, how to run around the Capitol delivering papers, how to answer calls, everything that could be imagined would be a job for us, was a job for us. It also was not that we had time to settle in; that afternoon, the Senate went into session, and we went to work.
I'll never forget it. The opening ceremony of the Senate, seeing Senators that we only see on screens casually roll in and give speeches, debate each other, and overall, is the function of the entire deal. We were not sitting there and watching, though; we were constantly running around. It felt surreal, one moment I was a kid from Wyoming, and the next I truly was in the middle of history, literally feet away from people making decisions that affect the whole country. I remember my heart pounding every time a Senator would look my way, feeling as if I might mess up something if I wasn't careful.
The work was not glamorous by any means, but it definitely mattered. Carrying papers, filling waters, copying speeches, it did not seem much on the outside, but everything had to be done perfectly, or it would throw something off. By the end of the first day, I was exhausted. My feet hurt & my brain was cooked. When I was walking back to my dorm, I couldn't stop thinking about what I’d just done, and it was a day that I'll never forget.
I did this every day for a few weeks, and although it started to become normal, it still felt really crazy at the same time. Some mornings I'd be so tired I didn't wanna leave my bed, but once school was over and I was in the Capitol, it was worth it. Not many kids my age can say they were walking around the Senate floor and running errands for senators. Although the jobs we had weren't huge, they did add up, and that helped me realize that small tasks matter.
Looking back, it's something that I am incredibly grateful for and will never forget, the people I met & the experiences I had. It wasn’t easy by any means, but it is an experience I will always remember.