A Memoir of a Young Delegate

Carl Angelo C. Casilag
(Georgetown University Qatar — Model United Nations Spring Conference 2020)

    In January 2020, I was interested to join an event called Model United Nations, I got in touch with our team advisor Mr. Jaspher, wherein I expressed my interest in the upcoming conference that will be held on February 20th. he was hesitant at first but he allowed me to make the cut. As the approaches, as I continued to prepare myself and all the materials that I will be needing for the events, I began on thinking about what types of people I will be meeting their will they be similar to the people that I met during my first competition. A few days later, it was the first day of Georgetown Model United Nations. It was during late Thursday afternoon, As I was walking around our conference room waiting for our committee heads to arrive, I saw some new and familiar faces around the room with me and as we wait altogether. As we wait and prepare all our materials for the three-day-long conference, I could sense the tension in the air and as I approach and converse with some of my fellow delegates regarding their country's stances and to even get to know them much better and as continue to approach each one of them I could sense the tension in the air. 

    Until I approached the delegate beside me, wherein she reminded me of my childhood as she is one of my childhood friends. As we talk and remember those old days when we would run around and play tag with each other reminds me a lot of my childhood, where no such expectations and responsibilities exist. And as I continue to roam the room to continue to gather information and form alliances, as I continue to feel the tension in the air it reminded me of the same feeling of tension that I experienced during my first ever participation in extracurricular activities, where fear and excitement can obviously be seen on each participant's faces. 

    But as I get to know and connect to them, they are the type of people that I become friends with as they are enjoyable and fun to be with, even as they may seem to be mean or difficult to be around during the conference or event but once you get to know them they are just very similar to you wherein they also felt the same feeling and first impression onto you. This experience had taught me new things about the world and people around me as we continue to try and impress the people that we meet in our day-to-day lives we forget that they are just similar to you, as they are also a person inside even they may seem mean or difficult to be with, but in the end, they may feel the same way do and even much more than you would expect and that you are all similar in a way you would not expect.

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”

- Anais Nin