During my fellowship for the City of Auburn, I learned not only an immense amount about the inner workings of local government, but also I learned about how this delicate relationship impacts the ability to make the City more accessible. I worked on the City’s Transition Plan from October of 2016 until now, and multiple stages were a part of the process. When I started working with the City on the Transition Plan, I had a big goal of getting it finished before I left for Christmas break in 2017. Little did I know the time-consuming task of working together with different departments to bridge the bureaucracy to complete a plan that would touch nearly every City department. It took an immense amount of time to first explain to different departments what I needed, follow up any questions, meet to discuss what they had and then make revisions, then follow up any more questions, and then finally, hopefully, have a somewhat final draft. This process taught me that no matter how bad I wanted it, most of my task wasn’t in my control. Sure, I could make revisions or changes, but I could not do my job until other people first did theirs. This was an important lesson I had to learn in working within local government, or any corporation. I learned the key to completing your work is to be flexible and supportive of the people you need help from.