Teen Ink

It was fast-forward squared.

Interviews, I thought, are a cozy sort of ­experience. Not the fireplace-in-the-winter kind of coziness, but more of a casual conversation where the interviewer just happens to have a number of questions, and the interviewee simply has a bunch of answers.

I suppose this shows my naivety. When you really define an interview, the above is true. But “casual” really doesn’t cover it. Electrifying? Tickling? Possibly scary? Wait, am I really here? Pinch. Oww. Yes.

It was certainly an experience that was pinch-worthy. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is more of a name to most people than a person – and to teens, a question mark. How many teens even know that the secretary of education is a woman? More importantly, who is Margaret Spellings?

I hardly have the answer, but from the moment I met her, she left many impressions. With a gently rolling Texas accent and attentive eyes framed with square rims, she looked comfortable, even though she had just come from an assembly and was due to fly out of Boston in a matter of hours. The interview went smoothly. Then she was gone.

On my way back to New York, I had plenty of time to think and I was still in a state of semi-shock. In a matter of hours, I would resume my regular life at school, but I had just interviewed the secretary of education. I would have a stack of homework and classwork and tests to study for, but I had just interviewed the secretary of education.

I had an interesting three-way conversation with a woman who happens to work in the government. Secretary Spellings certainly cares about the cause she works for and that, I feel, was my strongest impression.

It was mindless once I was in it; outside, I was ­relieved, a bit anxious of how it had gone, but most of all – tickled.