The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Nathan P. during the 2008-2009 League.
Mission: Tactics - SSI Experience
On the two hour trip to SSI, I was extremely nervous. Knowing nobody and not knowing what too expect I got out of my car and began unloading my things, the fact I was late did not help my nerves. When I entered the Great Lakes Christian Campus, I was immediately greeted by friendly volunteers who offered to take my bags. I entered the main auditorium and took a seat in the back. They told us some of the things we would be doing over the week, and I began to get excited. We were then separated into our caucus groups. After finding our group spot, we began conversing and reviewing our bill.
I got to know my caucus members quite well; in fact I still correspond with some of them. Over the week we heard lessons from many different people on a variety of subjects. These lessons were informative as well as fun and entertaining. As Wed. approached, our caucus became immensely worried. We knew our bills, as well as our arguments for our bills, backwards and forwards, yet the thought of being grilled by Senators was daunting. It turned out to be easier than expected and just made us more excited to debate our bills on Fri.
The GLCC campus’ food is not gourmet cuisine, but it is still good. The first couple of days, I would guess I gained two or three pounds, because I was just sitting around and studying. Yet, from Thurs. till Friday, I believe I lost about 7 because, at meal times, the only thing my caucus did was review our arguments. The funny thing was, we were excited to do it. We didn’t care that we used our meal time to talk and evaluate each others points and facts, it was fun.
On Friday, I woke up, got dressed and ready, quadruple checked to make sure I was not missing anything, and headed onto the bus. Upon entering the capital, nerves completely took over. Yet once on the floor, everything calmed down. Our team got up, delivered our arguments perfectly and won. It was so relieving to see all the hard work we put into our bills pay off. The first thing I said to my mom when I say her was “I want to go back, 100%, no questions asked.” Which is the same thing that I would say to anyone else who asked. If you are thinking about going to SSI, DO IT. It is an amazing experience and you will love every minute of it.
