The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Joshua F. during the 2009-2010 League.
Mission: Tactics - SSI Experience
My SSI experience… I will attempt to describe to you a week of sweat, toil, and work in the following paragraphs. I will attempt to describe a week of joy, relaxation, and fun as well.
You may ask yourself, how someone can experience all six sensations at once. But you're most likely an adult and have already learned for yourself that sweat can go hand in hand with joy, toil is followed by relaxation, and work and fun are very close cousins. And, if you've ever attended SSI-you know that all of these things are a part of your SSI experience.
Let's start with sweat (you'll understand my reasons for adding it in only a second), you see, SSI takes place during the summer. So if you attend it's going to be hot… really hot. It's not like a normal camping trip or like Boy Scout summer camp where you know that no matter what time of the summer you go it's going to rain; at SSI you simply know you're going to burn.
Moving on, we have toil. And looking up toil in the dictionary we see that it is synonymous with hard work-but I leave it on the list because if you attend SSI you will not only experience work, you'll also experience toil. It's work to complete the assignment, but it's toil to work with others to complete the assignment. I don't know the laws that govern the randomness of caucus selection (a caucus is the group your assigned to when you attend SSI) but somehow you'll always get a work-a-holic (let's-get-it-done-now-give-it-some-effort kind of person), a semi-slacker (or at least a let's-get-it-done-with-as-little-work-as-possible type person), and normally a peacemaker. Working together is the toil part of SSI and it's the cherry on top of the SSI-cream sundae. Without it, seeing your work come to fruition on the last day of SSI just doesn't seem worth it. Toil, and the result of it, is what brings about the sense of accomplishment-whether you win or lose your House bill.
And now, though I've already touched on the subject, there's also the matter of work. Work is what's assigned to you by the camp: the research, the writing, the formulating of ideas.'And, of course, work is getting up at such an indecent hour (7:00 AM!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!), even though it's summer. Last but not least, it's attending life changing classes where even the one teaching doesn't know the full impact the material will have on you.
And then comes the awesome part of SSI: the joy, relaxation, and fun. If work and fun are cousins, joy, relaxation, and fun are definitely siblings. You normally can't have one without the others close behind. That is why I lump the three together. You see, just like you know there'll be sweat, toil and work, something else you know about SSI is that if you look for fun and awesome people to hang out with-you'll find what you look for. Whether its playing Ultimate Frisbee or Ping Pong, or talking over a meal in the cafeteria-fun is waiting to greet you. And those who take the first step in introducing themselves to fun, find a fast friend that will stick with you the entire week.
To sum the camp up… SSI is awesome. And it is an AWESOME summer experience. And though in the end, my caucus lost the bill we were supporting and the one we were opposing, I wouldn't have given up the experience if you had paid me (… unless, of course, you truly made it worth my while, then I would consider it). SSI is an experience that I wish every teenager could take advantage of and I'm thankful to God that I was given the opportunity to attend.
In closing, to those of you reading this who are prospective students, or parents of prospective students: Come to SSI week two (aka THE BEST WEEK) you'll learn a lot and have a blast while doing it!
