Jason Rae: My week
The youngest Democratic superdelegate rushes around the National Convention
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This week I am attending the Democratic National Convention so I wake in my hotel room at 6am. I do a couple of radio interviews and go for breakfast with some of the other delegates. Every morning at breakfast we have a different speaker and today it is Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin. I head over to the Colorado Convention Center where I speak in a press conference on youth voting. I then go to the University of Denver where I give a speech to 250 high school students and then go and do a TV interview for Fox Business. Once they're out the way I walk to the Pepsi Center for the opening night of the speeches. Afterwards, I hurry back to the hotel for a reception and fall into bed at 1am.
Tuesday
I'm up at 6.30am and off to breakfast again. I go to the Colorado Convention Center and spend a couple of hours getting things prepared for the youth council meetings as I'm co-chair of the committee. I go for a long meeting and then to the Pepsi Center for the speeches again. I then go to another reception at a hotel hosted by Do Something, an online site that encourages young people to make a difference in their community. I get into bed at 2am.
Wednesday
After the breakfast speeches I go to the Convention Center and go over some things for Thursday's Youth Council meet. Later on, I officially cast my vote for Senator Obama to be the Democratic candidate and then help other delegates cast theirs. Afterwards I watch Obama's running mate, Senator Joe Biden, deliver his speech. On leaving, I get stuck in lots of traffic on my way to watch Black Eyed Peas perform at the Fillmore Auditorium. Everyone's pretty exhausted but morale is high. After the concert, there's another reception at the hotel and it's another late night.
Thursday
After my usual morning of breakfast speeches, I have more meetings at the Convention Center but I eventually sneak out and get the shuttle to watch Senator Obama speak to about 80,00 people at Invesco Field and where he formally accepts the Democratic presidential candidacy. He is absolutely fantastic to watch and he outlines clearly who he is as a person and his vision for the country and the world. He is so genuine and so real. It takes us an hour and a half to exit Invesco Field and I head to a hotel for a party with the Wisconsin delegates to celebrate the week's events. We're all very excited and I don't get to bed until about 3.30am.
Friday
After my first lie-in of the week, I go for one final meeting this morning and then spend the day organising some things and relaxing before flying back to Milwaukee in the evening. There was a record number of young people at the Democratic convention this year. It's important for my generation to have a voice in decision-making. It's been a wonderful week; everyone has been so enthusiastic despite having so little sleep. We all knew we were experiencing a part of history and it's something I'll never forget.
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