Rough Draft

Educational Narrative: Girl’s State 2013

My junior year in high school I was accepted into a program call Evergreen Girl’s State. Girl’s and Boy’s state is a mock government program put on by the American Legion in each state. Every year around 200 students are selected from schools throughout the state to participate in this program. Application processes are different at every school, but I was nominated by a teacher at mine to apply. I had never heard of the program before and to me it was just another stress added on top everything else I had to do; little did I know the impact it would have on me and how grateful I would be that I got to experience it.

                Stress is a common side effect of being a student and in my junior year of high school I was feeling an over-abundance of it. AP classes, finals, SATs, college applications; not to mention extra circulars, activities that might even be enjoyable if I was not holding the weight of academic responsibilities over my head. I was feeling the pressure and rather randomly another opportunity to add to my already full schedule presented itself. I got note from the office in my sixth period saying I, along with about thirty other students from school, had been nominated to apply for the Evergreen Girl’s and Boy’s state program. I had no idea what this program was, but apparently it was kind of a big deal and I began hearing a lot of positive feedback from students who had gone.  I was actually pretty excited until I realized that applying also included an essay and an interview. The essay was easy enough I suppose. We wrote about why we thought we would do well at Girl’s or Boy’s state and why we wanted to go; your standard cliché application prompt. Now the interview was another thing entirely. A committee from the American Legion and a few students who had attended the program in previous years would be asking us questions on our ambition, patriotism and knowledge of current events. I remember the feeling of anxiety upon arriving at the American Legion office for my interview. I thought I was going to pass out. A friend who was also applying had called me earlier that evening to talk about his interview had gone. He told me about the complicated questions they asked and it was clear that his confidence had been shaken. Not only did I sympathize with him, but it was not entirely encouraging for me either. This friend prided himself on being update with world affairs and an all-around pretentious intellectual. I figured if he was stumped by their question, how could I possibly have hope of answering any of them? Well the interview went better than I expected, but not by much. Some question were meant to trick the interviewee and others were just plain difficult to answer. I will not go into detail about some of the absolutely ridiculous answers I gave, but there was one set up with seemingly no other purpose than to confuse the interviewee. They asked out of the girls who applied from my school, which three would be the best choice to send. I picked three girls that I knew would do well, which prompted them to ask, “So you wouldn’t chose yourself?” I answered this in series of jumbled words followed by them all having a good a laugh; I guess this happened to everyone asked this question. There was a glimmer of hope though. Along with the more difficult questions, they asked some basic “tell me about yourself” ones. They asked if I read for pleasure if so what I liked to read. I mention John Green, a young adult author and one half of the YouTube team vlogbrothers, which brought a smile to one of the committee member’s faces. He was the director of this American Legion post’s son and in my opinion, the only person who was not intimidating to talk to. He jokingly said, “Well that’s it, you’re in!” We went on to talk about the abolishment of pennies, which John Green is firm supporter of.  This made me feel a lot more comfortable and I was able to continue the interview without bursting into tears at least. I walked out feeling shaken, but not completely without hope. The next few months I tried not to think about it as I waited for the results to come in.

                The results were set to come out in May, which was a particularly busy month; so keeping my mind of was not so difficult. Although I still found myself wondering about it throughout the day, I figured the chances of me getting in were pretty slim. I was rather shocked when I found out that actually did! Pretty much everyone who applied got in, so I guess the interview was more of a formality than anything else. I was excited, but also a little hesitant because I did not know what to expect from the program. About a week before leaving for Central Washington University, where the program was held, my anxiety heightened. I did not feel prepared whatsoever, nor had I gone over the reading material they had mailed to me. The night before, and morning of, I was frantically packing and trying to mental prepare myself for the endeavor. I was in a state of dread, at that point I just wanted to stay home and avoid going altogether. Exhausted and anxious, I finally found my way onto the bus headed for Central Washington. On the bus ride there, things turned around. We heard there would be talent auditions, so my friend and I came up with an arrangement of “This land is your land” with simple harmonies. We also met some new, friendly people on the bus and I found myself in a state of positivity that would last me throughout the trip.

                Once we arrived, we found our assigned forms, discovered what fictitious political party we would be in and the “city” that we would identify with. We met our junior counselor, who would be guiding us throughout the week and met our roommate. I got along with my roommate just fine and we ended up having the nicest dorm as well. My fear and anxiety had been replaced with excitement and I was looking forward to the week. The first couple days were stressful. Each city was given a problem that we would find a solution for by the end of the week, determined our party platform and we also held mock elections at the city, county and state level. I had not planned on running for any major position, maybe one at the county level, but then I saw the position of State Superintendent of Public Instruction listed. I had been feeling frustrated with my own local education officials and I felt like this would be a position I could be passionate about. I decided to run for it, figuring I had nothing to lose. In the primary elections, those who wished to run for a certain position would go up and give a speech in front of their party and the members of that party would elect one to move on to the general elections. I made a last minute decision to go up and make a speech and frankly I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. When I got up there I just started talking about why I was passionate about this position and what I thought needed to change and people responded to it. To my surprise, I ended up moving on to the general elections. There I would have to give another speech in front the entire Girl’s State population. I was a little bit more prepared for this one, but even so I did not go by the script I wrote. Thankfully I did not because I would have gone way over if I had. I did the same thing I did the first time; I got up there and just started talking. With the nervousness I felt beforehand, I was surprised by how comfortable I felt up there. Words and ideas that I did not even know I could conjure were pouring out of my mouth. I felt more confident than I ever had in my life, it was exhilarating. The next day we discovered the results during an assembly and they called up the people who had been elected for state offices. I nearly jumped out of my seat when they called my name. I could not believe it; I felt like I had accomplished something I could be proud of. I do not how I managed to get up the courage to make that first speech, but I was so glad that I did. I felt confident, empowered, shocked and most of all relieved that the stressful part was over.

                The next few days were less pressure, but also very educational. I was part of a group of eight in the governor’s cabinet. There we judged city models made to show the solution to their problems and looked over bills that had made it through the house and senate. We discussed whether or not they should be vetoed, passed or sent back for clarification. This provided a lot of insight into all the specifics of bills written in the real world. I learned that sometimes even if a bill is a good idea, if it is poorly written or is not clear enough it cannot be put into effect. I had not really thought about it before and to be able to discuss issues, some serious and some not, with this group of intelligent women was one of the most fun parts of this experience. We also did a lot of cutting construction paper and making awards in the governor’s cabinet, very serious work. I do wish we could have had a more active role and more time to look over the bills, since many did not make it to us due to lack of time. For example, we wanted to go sit in on the senate or house meetings to see what kind of discussions they were having. Although there is no law against this, it is rarely done so we were not able to. This was a little discouraging, but we all still enjoyed the time spent in cabinet meetings. One of the best parts about this experience was meeting so many intelligent and inspiring people. I was surprised at how smoothly we were able to run this mock government. There was argument of course, but most of it was well reasoned and we were able to come to a compromise most of the time. In fact, the approximately 200 teenage girls were able to unanimously agree on a bill to send to Girl’s Nation. The concerns people brought up were not unsupportive of the bill, but simply ways to improve it or problems that might come up when presenting up. I found the fact that we were able to so easily accomplish something like this and make a definite decision on an issue like this encouraging. Another encouraging thought was that even though we had our set parties and different platforms, once we got our positions and started working, none of that really mattered. We were there to speak up for what we believed in and what we thought would be best for the population of this fictional state. We were able to this successfully by not fixating on trivial party lines. In other words, we did our jobs.

                Girl’s State was not all serious, however. In fact, it was far from it a lot of the time. We did all sorts of silly chants and songs at our morning and afternoon assemblies. Each city preform a couple parody songs, we chose to an arrangement of Taylor Swift’s “Trouble” featuring goats bleating. These were a lot of fun and it also gave us time to get to know the people in our cities. Most of the time I am shy and a little awkward in social situations, but I found myself talking with people I did not know well easily. By the end of the week our city was really close and I’m grateful to have spent a week with such awesome people. Our junior counselors also did a skit together which ensued hilarity. We also had different talent acts preform at the assemblies. My friend and I preformed, “This Land is Your Land” on the last day. Although preforming musically was something I was more used to, it was still nerve-racking. It ended up going really well and we had a lot of fun doing it. This was another boost of confidence in an already empowering week. I was exhausted from the complete lack of sleep we got that week, but I could not be happier with how the week went. I felt like I had accomplished so much and had a blast in the process. The experience was an odd mixture of summer camp and serious mock government program. If nothing else, it made things entertaining and kept us on our toes.

                Upon returning from Girl’s State, after sleeping a full 18 hours, I realized how much I gained from the experience. Because of it I am much more confident, I am able to make connections with people and express myself more eloquently than I had been able to before. Not only did I gain a fair amount of knowledge about our government, I also learned quite a bit about myself. It was the first I felt as though I had really accomplished something, I was proud of myself. Although the experience was stressful and exhausting at times, it was well worth it. I learned what I was capable of and applied it to my daily life. I still carry a lot of the confidence I gained from this experience. The trepidation I felt upon leaving had transformed into exuberance when I returned home. I could not be more grateful to have had this amazing opportunity.