Author: Aubrey Nesbitt

This morning I honed my listening skills and looked for an opportunity to engage in active listening from a speaker. While at an Alexandria Veterans Business Enterprise Center (AVBEC) morning networking breakfast, I was introduced to a few different people in a short period of time. With people of higher education, to include graduates of West Point, with more work experience, varied community involvement, and so on, I found myself shying away from talking about myself, and instead inquired about their positions with the local neighborhood business community.

Even as a U.S. Army veteran, I approached this multicultural military based setting with a childlike curiosity and refrained from going into deep with my own limited background experience (Bucher, Bucher, 2013 p.143). One of the first people I was introduced to was a founder of a nonprofit which had an interesting technique of alleviating stresses that some military members face, sometimes due to war. This entrepreneurial business leader's nonprofit, which was based out of New Jersey, takes military personnel and gives them non  serviceable military uniforms, cuts them into tiny pieces, and then processes them into recycled paper. I was dumbfounded by the resiliency of materials involved and continued conversation with him over coffee that was provided by AVBEC. With art as a topic, I mentioned some other nonprofits events and venues, which included the Sunday Record Fair at Rosslyn's Artisphere which was to host Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat, as a guest speaker. Moving forward, breakfast, which was mostly fruits and pastries, mixed into LTG Bob Wood's main speech, which was to continue at a professionally enriching 2 hours without a single distracting pause, aside from a few rounds of applause from the audience. There were so many topics touched on, that it was hard to remember all of the facts, truths, tips, and expert mentorship that he had gained from his thirty six years of volunteered service to the United States Army. I found these multicultural boundaries of military and civilian professional development to be somewhat beyond my immediate understanding and just tried to soak in the material covered. For example, LTG Wood mentioned his early beginnings as a public servant where he delivered a newspaper route to the local community he grew up in, while going through the famous T.C. Williams High School, which is located in my hometown of Alexandria.

As stated earlier, there were not any interruptions from LTG Wood's speech. In the end, there was a Q and A with audience members who raised their hands for specific questions. With a brief background as a junior enlisted in the Army, I found myself still respectful of his outstanding rank, and rather than try to pick his brain for answers that I didn't know, I just enjoyed my place at the table and listened to the responses and follow ups from other people at the table, while still considering the previously covered topics. Next, with the free coffee provided by AVBEC still settling in my stomach, I said good bye to the nonprofit founder to my right, and headed out so I could return to my parents office in Alexandria, Virginia.

With the weather heating up in Northern Virginia, tourist season is just starting up again. In summertime Old Town, Alexandria is very a popular destination for locals and out of towners. People are attracted to Old Town's luxurious dining options, rich historical setting, cultural activities, lively nightlife, varied shopping, and waterfront atmosphere. As an amateur artist, I was drawn to visit Old Town for a few brief sketching sessions of a busy Spring weekend. After I found an appropriate and non disruptive angle, I planted myself for a 15 minute sketch. The lighting from the Spring season was a great transition from the lasting reach of winters darkness. Gone were the days of wearing layers, now only a light jacket would do just fine. With endless motions of people in passing, I jotted down what I could. From parents pushing strollers, to couples enjoying ice cream, to an accordion player providing background noise, to the parked King St Trolley, to the block away Fish Market sign, I tried to capture the lively happenings of King St. and Union St. Moving on, I made my way towards the waterfront. Behind the Torpedo Factory, past a magician working on keeping an audience of children and adults attention, past an artist with his work laid out for those in passing to view, past the riverboat taxis, past Chart House Restaurant, and to the waterfront. Here people snapped pictures, people rested on benches, and in general enjoyed the peaceful surroundings. I started my second 15 minute sketch of National Harbor & the Woodrow Wilson Bridge on the horizon. To finish, I scribbled in some clouds with birds in the foreground.

Old Town

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