One of the things Elizabeth Warren said to me early on was, when doors close, there’s a tendency to hear that closing, and that sound of that door being slammed shut can cause you to miss the fact that other doors are opening. So you just have to spend most of your time looking for those other open doors and staying in the mindset of being willing to walk through them. Even when I got to Congress, it was a few months of me being like, ‘I’m really junior, I don’t get this. We’re not going to pass the Porter Act any time soon.’ But the important thing is to see that the door was open. Which was like, ‘hey, every bozo gets five minutes in a hearing. I’m going to do something with my five minutes.’
It’s always been interesting to me that we don’t think about being a teacher as a good qualification for Congress. Because really, that’s what it’s about. It’s about learning from your constituents, about learning from your colleagues. It’s about learning from the hearings and then it’s about sharing that information back to the American public, or your constituents, or your colleagues. I make friends easily, and I like people. I think if you are an introvert, I don’t know how you would do this. I mean, there are introverts, but I don’t know how they survive.
We provide less coverage and access to mental healthcare today than we did in the 1960s and 70s. And [mental healthcare] is a really important part of strengthening our workforce. Employers will tell you, and disability insurance companies will tell you, that mental health is a leading cause of missed days of work and unproductively, of workplace stress and tension. So it’s a huge, huge unmet need.
I always pictured work-life balance like the scales of justice. But I’ve learned it’s more like balancing on a bike. You’re just trying not to fall off. You’re going to lean, you’re going to hit bumps, you’re going to have to stop and take a water break. Your bike might break, and you might have to get a new one, but you haven’t lost that skill of being able to balance on the bike. That has really, really helped me, because then I think a lot about the fact that I’m still on the bike. I’m still on the journey. I still have that skill set to be able to be both a parent and a professional. It’s not ever the scales of justice. It’s this very active, continuous kind of balance.
I typically change a couple of times a day. I’ll wear something for a hearing, and then I’ll change at home into flip flops and a skort—love them. Everything is done in flip flops and a skort. I’ll do a lot of jacket on top, skort on the bottom, and then I’ll go for a swim. It’s really easy to get that skort and everything back on over the swimsuit. And now I put more effort into my makeup—especially during the pandemic. My goal is to not have to put on makeup twice in one day.
Veep is a very accurate depiction of Congress. There’s a lot of effort that goes into making this look super glamorous. But the reality is, a lot of the time. I’m sweaty, I’m late, I’m tired, I’m jet-lagged. There’s a lot of running around. I used to wonder why people have staffers. But then I realized that I hadn’t had anything to drink in three hours, I don’t know where my lipstick is, my hair is a mess, and now I’m supposed to go on TV. The one thing I really do miss [during the pandemic] is getting my makeup done for TV, because it’s very relaxing. But once in a while, you end up looking a little strange, so you have to kind of watch them.
There’s some hostility in the House when it comes to personal style. But Susie Lee has excellent taste. Lauren Underwood dresses somewhat similar to me, but she just carries it off better. And I enjoy Rosa DeLauro’s outfits, just because they’re free from convention. I don’t always understand them, but I think they’re kind of fun. When it comes to men, the only person you really notice is Jeff Van Drew. I didn’t know pocket squares were really such a thing.
Leave a Reply