a step closer.

Out of the numerous events going on in my hectic life right now, an MUN conference reserved itself a spot. For the past three school days, I’ve been at Indianhead International School, participating in the MUN conference. It was only my second conference, yet meaningful.

The conference was minimal with only three different schools participating and mostly the Indianhead students. This time, I had to step up from the unnoticed role I played in SEOMUN to a main submitter, meaning writing a resolution to be debated on. Unfortunately, due to the numerous and overwhelming imovies and such tasks, it was difficult to squeeze in the time to write the resolution until the very last minute. It was only two days before the lobbying time that I commenced my resolution. I thought to myself,” I can’t do this.” Nonetheless, something in my mind kept me going leading into my very first resolution. Frankly, it wasn’t as great as the ones I’ve seen before; moreover, it seemed like a trainwreck. I had to bug Jessica to help me out and skype me about my mistakes and possible improvements. It was total mess. There seemed to be no hope for this resolution to pass, but I had to carry it with me to Indianhead searching for co-submitters.

Let’s say the first impression of my committee was plainly cold and ignorant about the visitors. They were amongst their own classmates signing each others resolutions. Other KIS delegates and I were out of the searching. Inside, I was screaming,” Hello?!?!” Too bad I couldn’t say anything, I just thought I should be quiet in a foreign school. However, I needed at least six co-submitters in order for my resolutions to pass, I mean I did put a lot of effort into this messy resolution. I had to put a smile on my face and go up to the IIS students, one by one asking them to be my co-submitter. Fortunately, I had exactly six of them, whew, that was a alleviation. But oh no, what’s coming was even more terrifying.

On the day my resolution had to be debated on, that very morning, I realized minimal errors. I felt humiliated and wanted to hide under a rock. Too bad my resolution was the first one that morning and I was trapped in a hot room full of delegates dressed in black and white. To my nerve wrecked mind, they looked like penguins.

“Can the delegate of France approach the podium and read the resolution,” the Chair demanded. Yes, the delegate of France was me. I walked up slowly acting like I was confident, but I felt like my nerves were divulged to the whole committee. “Be calm Yura, be calm,” I had to repeat in my head. I couldn’t do anything, but read the resolution I had written. I commenced one by one, trying my hardest to keep myself together. Luckily, I managed to speak clearly, but the luck failed by the last page. THE NUMBERING WAS WRONG… that I couldn’t even read my own resolution. I hesitated for a second, which seemed like a minute in what to do. This was the resolution: KEEP ON GOING, so I did. Finally, I was done reading the two pages of my typo-filled resolution. My hand was still shaking and I didn’t remember a thing I said or saw when I was up at the podium.

I came back and seated myself into my seat. My nerves wouldn’t shake off, it was like glued to my body. As the conference continued, my resolution was debated on. Many delegates attacked various parts of my resolution, but I managed to give them an answer to their doubts. Without a notice, the glue had lost its stickiness and left my body. Surprisingly, I felt confident enough to defend my resolution. I had various people support me and defend my resolution. They were amazing and felt like the sun that melted away the cold ice thrown at my resolution by some delegates. After 40 minutes of debate, it was the time for voting. I highly doubted it’ll pass. It had too many flaws, the flaws that divulged my inexperienced self. Miraculously, it passed. I was surprised, but glad that I took my time to write this resolution because if I hadn’t I would have never learned how to enhance a resolution. I’m still a fledgling, but my experience has taught me one of the infinite lessons.