Well, it’s finally all over, and Iowa has already escaped the minds of every media person and politician in the country. Was it as good for you as it was for me?

I don’t know which experience was more exciting for me, CBS invading my house and interrogating me or counting all 150 ballots at my caucus.

I think the CBS thing wins.

First of all, this was a completely unexpected, strange event.

It all happened with the “Washington Week in Review” taping. Thank you, Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication (that’s for the faculty who were trying to make me wear a Greenlee School scarf or hat on camera — sorry).

Anyway, I was one of the students who volunteered to ask a question. As it turns out, the producer from the “Early Show” on CBS was at the taping and liked my question and thought I demonstrated the typical politically active college student profile.

Wait, is that an oxymoron, a politically active college student?

Anyway, they wanted to do an interview on why I was interested in politics and what I was doing to prepare for the caucuses.

Little did I know this was going to be a huge production for about 10 minutes of tape.

It all started out at 9:30 last Saturday morning.

Mistake No. 1—Going out to the bar the night before.

Mistake No. 2—Realizing that the living room was littered from a little “get-together.”

Needless to say, things were a little tense. At 9:30 on the dot, four guys from CBS arrived, complete with their cameras and sound equipment squeezed into my little house, which was halfway clean at that point.

From there, everything was exciting and maybe a little embarrassing. They really wanted to emphasize that I was a normal college student, so they taped me brushing my teeth and shoveling snow off of my sidewalk.

I guess that makes me normal. After being interviewed alone, the crew literally rolled my roommates out of bed to interview them about their political participation.

I never really got used to the camera and sound guys following me around all weekend. I was constantly bumping into the camera guys and forgetting I had a mic on. I actually had to think before talking.

By Sunday CBS had followed me and my enormously exciting life to campus and a caucus training class.

Then the big day — Caucus Monday arrived, and I was ready. When I arrived home from class that day, the camera crew was waiting for me.

They filmed me making signs and got a quite attractive shot of me eating Noodle-Roni out of a pan. Then off we went to Vet Med and, after much searching, found the caucus room.

The turnout was incredible; it was standing room only. I thought my precinct was a good representation of what a typical caucus, in terms of participation and organization, is all about I was the recorder for my precinct, so I got to count all of the ballots, and yes, CBS was there filming to keep me honest.

Although my caucus was a little long, it was great to see so many interested, involved people come together to discuss politics.

I was exhausted by the end of the night and the CBS cameras were gone. I felt like Cinderella after the ball; everything was back to normal.

I guess the whole point of the interview was to show that younger people can take an active role in the political process and make a difference.

I’m sick of hearing it, and I’m sick of saying it, but it is our responsibility as young voters to take up an interest in politics.

If we don’t, the issues that are important to us will never matter to the politicians. I think a lot of students were involved this year, but there must be more interest. If my interview inspired just one person to get involved in politics, then I’ve accomplished my goal.

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Rachel Scherle is a senior in political science from Henderson.