Model United Nations

This weekend, me and 15 other students from Uplands took a bus down to KL to attend the Mini MUN conference at the International school of KL. We were joined by three other international schools, so there were quite a number of people attending this event.

This is the first time i've attended a MUN conference, so it was a very eye-opening experience for me. I represented Sweden in the Human Rights committee. From the very beginning, things were already very tense as we were suddenly asked to make our opening speech, but none of us (people from uplands) had prepared one, as we were not aware that we had to. So as the delegates before me were making their speeches, i quickly began typing up mine. When it was my turn to make my speech, i was extremely nervous indeed. But once i stood up at the front and began speaking, i relaxed and spoke confidently. When it was over, i felt incredibly good. And this was only the beginning.

We then had lobbying in which we merged resolutions with other delegates who had similar interests. Through this experience i've made a number of new friends, and in the given time of less than 3 hours, we were expected to come up with one final resolution. This of course needed a lot of effective communication, organization, and leadership skills. I was fortunate to have been in a group where most members were willing to contribute, and so we managed to come up with a good resolution (which was approved by the chairs!) after some compromises.

During the debate itself, i must say i felt quite lost. I was not used to the formal language used, "will the chair please ask the delegate of France what she means by economic transactions", and also the fast reactions of delegates who were up front was pretty amazing. I am not sure whether they things they have said are factually true, but nevertheless they have made it sound very convincing. Some of these delegates are very young, yet they carry so much confidence and natural public speaking skills. I was very impressed.

Unfortunately, i did not participate much in the debate as I was not very confident. I was not very well prepared, both in the sense that i have not done sufficient research, and also we have not really practiced any debates during our MUN meetings at school.

However, this was a very valuable experience, which has not only made me learn a lot more about the world affairs, but also of the kinds of talents people amongst myself possess. If i had the chance, i would definitely go for another conference - this time much more well prepared of course.