So here’s the long awaited blog. On January 24th I went to Washington DC for the National Young leaders Conference. I stayed at the National 4H Conference Center which soon became a home. I was with 350 students from all over the nation. It was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever experienced. My roommates where from New Hampshire, Texas (who wasn’t) and South Carolina. We got along pretty well. Going into the conference I was afraid that I wouldn’t get along with my roommates but that turned out differently.
My small group of about twenty was so cool. I met people from New Jersey, Michigan, Iowa, Arizona, and even someone from Colorado Springs. We all hope to keep in touch and so far some of us have done a pretty good job.
In our small groups we encountered three simulations. One on each branch of the Government. Our first simulation was the “If I Were President” simulation were on of the members of our group was elected president and the rest became his faculty advisors. Once we had all been assigned the simulation we were given the night to read thirty pages. Thirty pages was a lot to read in one night especially after we had all just flown in from all over and were kept up until eleven. We split the reading and then gave each other a brief summary of what we read and then headed to bed.
We woke up the next morning after sleeping in until 7:00am. That morning was the only morning we got to sleep in. of course Isla my roommate from Texas and I waited till the last possible moment to get up and then rushed to breakfast and onto our small group meetings. There we discussed the proposed crisis in Sudan and as the executive branch prepared for the press conference. Once the President had heard all the ideas of what to do the rest of the small group turned into a press room and asked questions.
After discussing this we had a key note speaker H James Towey on faith based organizations and advisor to the president speak to us. Oh yeah and we had a speaker the night before too. Following the speaker we boarded our buses at 12:00pm and they departed at 12:05 pm. These people were all about time everything is planned out to the minute. The buses took us to Union Station. We had an hour to eat but that wasn’t much. From Union Station we were transferred to the Memorials. W only had a small time slot for some reason or another so we had to rush through the Lincoln Memorial, and the Korean and Vietnam Memorials. Returning to the buses only moments later we continued back to the 4H center. By the end of the trip we knew the “Welcome message” given to our group leader. When we would arrive somewhere the director would always get on the walkie talkie and explain what the procedure was. They would always start the message the same.
Back at the 4H center we had our “Testing the Constitution” simulation Prep, and our “Model Congress briefing.” Dinners at the center weren’t bad at all. I had stuffed shells the first night, tortellini the second, pizza was ordered for the third, my roommates and I ordered Chinese food the fourth otherwise it would’ve been barbeque, and Saturday dinner was at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill. After dinner we had leadership workshops were we selected a topic we wanted to discuss and then mixed with other students from the conference. I attended a workshop that was very … I don’t know…this guy gave us a summary of an event and we had to piece it together and point out the mistakes. It happened that these two guys were drunk and they drove in the mountains, to make a long story short. The passenger didn’t have his seat belt on and died. It turned out this was the story of the guy who was giving the seminar. It was moving. After the workshop we had e brief meeting about Capitol Hill, and then we were able to meet other people from the state. Apparently these two kids from Boulder went to the same school and didn’t even know.
Buses left at seven, wow was that and early morning. In the cold chilly air of January we marched up Capital Hill, most girls in skirts (I’m so glad I didn’t wear on that day). We were admitted to the Floor of the House of Representatives which no tourist group is allowed to see. It was only a week later that Bush delivered his State of the Union address there. We were then released on the Hill for the day. I met with the staff of Congressman Bob Beauprez because he was in Colorado while I was there. I received a ticket to sit in on a session of congress but I didn’t go so now I have a really cool ticket. On Capital Hill you cannot J-walk. There are 1400 police officers waiting to give you a ticket. As I was crossing the street I tripped on my pants, (it was windy so they caught), and my camera hit the ground. The film went one way and the batteries another. Now I don’t have any pictures of the Supreme Court. I met this dude named Ron so he joined my roommate Jaclyn and me and we toured the Supreme Court. We got to sit in the benches of the court but I fell asleep while the lady was lecturing. From there we wandered around and found our way through the mud (the sidewalk was under construction) to the Library of Congress. It was so cool. We took a tour of the place and the guide explained the history of it and then he took us back to the main reading room were e few million books are. It was amazing. The Library of Congress is the biggest library in the world. We ran out of time and couldn’t finish the tour but met up with Isla and ran back down the hill to the buses. The buses took us the WWII memorial which wasn’t much but after looking and a picture from the summer my friend took it really is cool. It was on this day that I met Dan. He’s a guy from our group. We walked up the hill together just talking about how dress pants don’t help when it’s really cold. Oh and his tie always matched his shirt he freaked out about that on the bus in the morning. And had to go back and get a new one.
Dinner was back at the 4H center and then we had “Testing the Constitution” our judiciary seminar. We were given an actual court case and the ruling that our small group was identical to that of the Supreme Court (not all the judges but the votes). It was pretty cool. After the simulation we had more of our Model Congress prep. Our group the Marshall Group was caucus G and had to write up an amendment that would allow Sudafed to be an over the counter drug and not one to be distributed by pharmacist. The NYLC talent show was pretty cool too. It was students doing what they could with what they had.
Friday was breakfast at the National Press Club and breakfast with the press. They didn’t do so well with answering our questions. They answered some and avoided others. I was so tired I was going cross eyed. After breakfast we visited the FDR and TJ memorials. I was alone getting off the bus but then throughout the FDR memorial Dan followed me and we just hung out for the rest of the time. I had to fill my pictures with someone. The memorial is a lot more impressive with the water running but unfortunately there was not water at any of them. We had to walk from the FDR to TJ memorial. Dan and I talked about shoes. We decided that men’s shoes might be comfortable but they are to stiff and girl’s shoes need work. So when I grow up I’ll invent the perfect dress shoe. The statue of TJ is 19ft tall because nothing is taller than Freedom which is 19 and half feet tall onto of the capital. There are four symbols at his feet but I won’t go into that much detail. We had lunch in Georgetown, really expensive. I don’t know how I managed but I missed the Starbucks and Chipolte. Dan and I were really upset about that but he got Starbucks at Union Station so he’d had it more recently. Upon returning to the 4H center we had town hall meetings. I chose to attend one on the 1st amendment in schools. It was a really good discussion but not well managed. Not everyone could talk obviously but not a lot was realty said. Following the town hall meeting was more model congress prep. Lobbyists were making posters and slogans and testifiers like me were writing up speeches to be heard at committee hearings. We had Chinese food for dinner and then prepared some more. I gave a testimony at the government reform committee. They failed my amendment 20-0. Other committees didn’t fail them that bad. Teenagers are communist because my argument was one of the best heard that night according to one of the adult directors in the back of the room. We had lobbyist go to other caucus and lobby and many others came to us.
Saturday morning we meandered past the white house and onto the Department of the Interior where we held our Model Congress. Our group amendment and only one other amendment failed. They only started reporting the committee voting half way through so most democratic bills passed and ours didn’t because people knew the results of the committee hearings. Most republicans because not all of our amendments made the bill voted it down but there was one group of republicans that did. I’m so mad at them the bill passed with a 161 to 160 vote. To close for comfort but they couldn’t count again because people wouldn’t’ have been honest in their voting. Lunch was expensive at the Smithsonian. Most of our group stuck together. We was the star spangled banner and the dresses of the first ladies and the hope diamond. I wanted to see the air and space museum but w didn’t have time. Jaclyn Lanie Dan and I all rode the carousel on the national mall because we had fifteen minutes to kill before the buses left. We had an hour and a half back at the 4H center to get ready for dinner. Then once again we were bussed of to the Hyatt Regency on Capital Hill for dinner and our dance. I’ve seen some dirty dancing but some of the teens there! Our group just kind of hung out in a corner of the dance floor. At eleven they put us back on buses we did the bus count for the last time and bus 4 (the best bus ever) went back to the 4H center.
Sunday morning we all had breakfast and said our goodbyes. It was really sad but nobody cried till we got on the buses. My roommates were leaving on later buses so they called me one more time to hear my ET voice. It was so cool absolutely amazing I want to see everyone again.
