It was my pleasure to have Jordan Thompson working in Senator Sprouse’s office during the last week of the session. Jordan is a 15-year-old resident of Florida whom I met several years ago. After expressing interests in politics I invited him to come for the latter end of the session for an apprenticeship of sorts.

I thought it would be interesting to read what a 15-year-old thought of the going-ons of the Senate so I invited him to share his perspective of the session.

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By Jordan Thompson

Starting off I would like to say that I immensely enjoyed my time with Will, his family and my time in the Senate. It was a great experience and a huge learning curve as well as an ambition of mine to see politics in action. It was amazing to see the weeks busyness all wind down to midnight on Saturday/Sunday. I will try to briefly share some of the many things that I learned during the week.

I went to the capital with a pretty well open mind but I learned that you must decide what you believe before you try to make decisions on any level, state, national, or personal. If you wait until you are forced to make a decision “the day of,” then you could blow it.

A good example is Senator Oliverio’s speech on the table games bill. He said he couldn’t see when he was young how allowing the lottery would be detrimental to the state. He voted for it then but now his mind has been made up against gambling since he has seen the effects of it in the state of West Virginia. A sound position on gambling contributed to his vote on this occasion.

While in the senate I had the opportunity to hear some excellent speeches mostly on the gambling bill: especially Senator Oliverio’s. He has an excellent ability to motivate. By the end of the speech I (and probably every one of the spectators in the gallery) were ready to devote their life to fight gambling on every level. Unfortunately some of the other senators were not motivated enough to vote against the bill on that occasion. But the most profitable thing about being on the losing side is you have the advantage to learn the more than your opponent from your loss.

Best wishes to all those in West Virginia. Thank you for the opportunity to learn.

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You can find Jordan and his family online at familyharmony.net.