This is baisically my summory of the weekend I had at the capitol. I dunno if you'll find it interesting, (after all, it was sorta a school "paper"), here it is anyway...
Youth & Government
Binders, suitcases, name tags, and elevator doors. YMCA's yearly Youth and Government Model
Legislature three-day weekend for high school students had come again. In addition to adult sponsors
and 9th through 12th graders included into the program, “pages” were allowed to stay and experience the
event as well.
...And that's where I came in.
As an 8th grader, I was a year short of being accepted into the program as a whole, but I was signed up
to be a message-runner for the numerous delegate. From the start, I knew that the pages were the lowly,
humbled, and over tasked kids, who usually were siblings of the older participants. We were basically
the bottom of the food chain. It was hard to determine how many times people, almost always former
pages, reminded me to “wear tennis shoes” and to “take the elevator, NOT the stairs.” Page “training”
was more or less a tour of both the House of Representatives and the State Senate. We were warned against personal notes and tic-tac-toe game scribbles, being told to toss these if we felt as though they were rather irrelevant to the weekend.
And then we were sent off. A page (or two) to a room. All nine of us, wondering what our destiny as note-bearers would amount to. I headed directly to the room I was commissioned to, the furthest back in the State Senate.
And then I waited.
...And waited.
That first Friday was–considering the dramatic stories of poor pitiful pages, exhausted and footsore that I had heard–dull. Just dull. Sure, a few highlights, and a handful of laughable occasions, such as the time that I had been aboard an elevator, and despite the pressing of the floor #2 button, the other persons and I ended up in the basement (and how that happened is beyond me), and the moments as I witnessed Eve (one of the Senators there) cringe in disgust when we watched in horror as Matthew, playing the role as Bear Grills, devour a repulsively greasy, grimy, drippy, mayonnaise-slathered and gargantuan-tomato ridden Wendy's burger for dinner.
The next day came to me more fast-paced. Trotting–or rather power walking–slips of paper back and fourth between capitol buildings and the courtyard between them took it's toll on my feet (clad, or course, in tennis shoes). But the larger workload was welcomed, despite my occasional rumblings about them. I ended up spending much of my time on the Senate floor, ferrying messages and listening to bills being poked and prodded at, while the author or sponsor present tried his or her best to defend its cause. A few of the bills that I over heard were
–A bill to begin airing recorded schooling sessions.
–A bill to encourage swimming lessons for small children.
–A bill to outlaw driving while under the urge of going to the bathroom (a personal favorite of mine).
Yup. Saturday was action packed, and when action packs, it often also comes to me with a packet of clumsiness. Ah yes, the day of running into an automatic opening door.
Nice memory.
Lunch that day was pretty neat too. Rumors of Taco Bell haunted delegates and pages alike. Ghastly stories of food poisoning and stomach pumping were heard. But to our surprise–and delight–tins of what looked to be homemade Mexican food, REAL, cheesy, crunchy, steaming hot tacos, enchiladas, and beans and rice all piled together on a paper plate.
...Definitely NOT Taco Bell.
And lastly, Sunday. I arrived at the capitol after church and after grabbing lunch at Chilli’s (oh yeah! Shrimp tacos...). Both the House & the Senate Floors were churned around and bubbling with the frenzy of Representatives, Senators & Lobbyists, all trying hard to pass their bills. My paging job was almost over.
And finally, the closing ceremony. I watched from the floor, standing in the doorway, and feeling like me feet were about to melt off. But it was great to see people, people who I felt I had gotten to know by reading the random things that they wrote to their friends, get awards and being mentioned for the outstanding accomplishments that they achieved. All in all, it was...fun, but, well...work.
...For lack of a better word anyway.
And now since I have annoying people staring at the screen and distracting me, I will try my hardest to wrap this up once and for all.
Argh.
-Plink.
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