Katie Thompson

As October comes to an end, I look back and realize that this month has literally been a whirlwind since day one. The morning of Tuesday October 1st I awoke with the rest of the nation to find that certain members of Congress had proceeded to shut down our federal government instead of compromising on a funding measure to keep it open and running.

I was upset and frustrated at the news that such a small group of people were so poorly representing the interests of myself and my fellow citizens. I shot off a few aggravated tweets over coffee using the #DearCongress tag as organized by NBC’s TODAY Show.

As the day went on it became apparent that a lot of people agreed with my feelings. My twitter rant caught steam and by mid-afternoon I was contacted by NBC to provide a quick Instagram video of myself reading my tweet above. It ended up airing on NBC’s TODAY Show pretty early the next morning.

It was a surreal experience that I am very thankful for. I am happy and hopeful that my message provided others with a sense of understanding regardless of our political preferences as individuals.

Thanks again to NBC and the TODAY Show for allowing me to share my thoughts. Take a read and watch the segment my video was featured in (if you know what I look like, it’ll be hard to miss my face, don’t worry) http://www.today.com/news/you-shouldnt-be-getting-paid-viewers-send-shutdown-messages-congress-8C11306978

P.S. I broke the cardinal rule of the internet and read the Facebook comments of the post NBC shared of this article. Mostly, folks agreed with me. The only really negative comment I remember is some woman accusing me of being a man, which basically means I’VE MADE IT YOU GUYS!