A few days back me and five other classmates were taken to a nearby school for a MUN session. For those of you, who don’t know MUN stands for Mock United Nations. The session lasted for two days and as it was my first time I was decidedly nervous. Not to mention, no one in our school had ever gone before for MUN so not only were we first timers but also clueless first timers! I was part of the Asian economic conference  and representing Qatar and for me the name itself was too complicated to comprehend. I was given the agenda ‘Role of Automation in Asian economies and the transition from labor-centric economies to automated economies’. To be honest, hearing about the agenda was frightening enough and thinking about researching about it and preparing arguments seemed not only incredibly nerve racking but also nearly impossible.

Not to seem under prepared, I searched the topic on a few sites and also read about MUN. To be honest nothing got to me. Fancy words like unmoderated and moderated caucus not only unnerved me but also made me dread the upcoming event. People talked about 2 months of research and I learnt of the event a week before. I had substantial basic research which I had searched for my position paper which was to be submitted beforehand. My fellow participants not only seemed more confident but also more prepared. I acted along but in reality felt like a complete idiot. My teacher kept telling us on how hard we had to research and how eloquent our speeches were expected to be. I only possessed a brief knowledge on the topic by Wikipediaing (honestly that should be a word) it up. As soon as I learnt we were to wear formal clothes and were against 11 and 12 graders my mind was sure of one thing- I was going to die of embarrassment and would be the stupidest delegate ever. I as an 8th grader would be the youngest and as I had no remote chance of winning anything,would only be an embarrassment for our school.

A day before our event our school took us on an hour long bus journey for an orientation. It was only there that I learned anything about what I was to do. Finally, I saw everything with clarity. The MUN was going to be worser(another word that should exist) than I had  thought it would be. The next day i woke up at 5 am. The venue was far thus we had a reporting time at 6 and we were scheduled to reach at 8:30. I dressed up in my formal suit and all and set off. My companions stood in front of our pickup point in full regalia. And at 6 we set of with our teachers.

The bus ride was fun. We shared jokes, played pranks talked and laughed. Even the three 9th graders joined in shedding their aloofness. We talked about our anxiety and how we felt under prepared. At 8:30 we reached. All of us were nervous. Until 11:30 we had a welcome program and then we started with the committees.

I was inwardly freaking out. The committee had started with experienced speakers taking the spotlight. Fancy words were thrown out and clauses of articles were referenced to. I felt at loss. Had everyone here memorized the constitution? In the first half I did not speak once. I was seriously underconfident. In the second half I only raised one question. Towards the end everyone was lobbying finding allies and writing the action plans we were to submit the next day. I was just walking around feeling out of place. I had got the hang of things but still was shy. We were ready to leave when an idea came into my head. In solution to the problem we were discussing about I had a neat plan for our country. I skipped up to the Chinese delegate and talked to her about my idea. She agreed. I had something in my mind….

The next day I  had an action plan ready. It proposed an alliance between China and Qatar. On that day, I spoke enough to make up for the day before. I argued and convinced. And finally the MUN was over. The chair came up to me as I prepared to leave. He asked for a copy of my action plan to put on Facebook. I was elated as he gave me his email id to send it to and as he praised my action plan.

Later, we went to the award ceremony. They first started with my committee’s awards. “And” said the anchor” the award of commendable delegate goes to…. delegate of Qatar!” I shot out of my chair. AAAAAAAAHHHH!!! My first MUN and i had won commendable delegate!

On the return journey we had lots of fun. I saw the head boy pouring water on the head girl. The head girl punching the head boy. Everyone was happy but most happiest of all was me. I won the first award for our school! The most nerve racking of moments had turned into the most memorable of moments….

 

Adyesha Singhdeo