During the time that I have been in the Model United Nations class in school, I've been able to represent different countries around the world, some of which I haven't even heard of before. I have been a delegate of the United Kingdom, of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Benin, and the Marshall Islands as well. While I may not have represented as many countries as most people, I still managed to gain a great experience and I've helped solve many of the world’s problems that were going on today, even though it was just a simulation of course.
Not only was I gaining a great public speaking experience that would be able to use in later years, most likely college, but I was also enjoying myself at the same time. I will admit that when I first took MUN. I didn’t particularly like the class, but once I went to my first conference, I started to really like the class a lot. It was in Harvard University in Boston, it was also the first time I went out of state without my parents so just that made me even more nervous than I already was just thinking about the conference. It was one of the most energizing events I’ve ever been to. Everyone was focused on winning awards for best delegates and wanting to get their resolutions passed. The only way to describe it would be that it seemed chaotic but orderly at the same time.
There were so many things that I wanted to argue about when I was there. Unfortunately I’m not the type of person who likes to speak publicly so most of the time I kept my mouth shut. I did the same for each and every one of the conferences, except for a few occasions where I decided to go up and speak and give in my own ideas. It felt good to show my point of view; the only problem was that there were also many others who opposed my ideas and it upon themselves to voice it in front of the other delegates. While it was hard to prove that my ideas were plausible, for me it was hard to voice it, so after a while I would get too nervous to speak so I would co-write speeches with my partner and have them read it to the other 200+ delegates.
Me not being able to speak much in the conferences is one of the things that I wish I could go back and change. Looking back on it now, I find it funny that I was so afraid of public speaking. I still am slightly afraid of it now, but not to the extreme like when I went to my first conference. It was a good experience actually and it showed me what life in college would be like and it showed me what I needed to work on for similar situations and also what I could improve on.
Being in Model U.N. was definitely one experience that has helped me out.
Being in Model U.N. was definitely one experience that has helped me out.