As a concerned American and an involved youth, the state of our country and this world, especially after Donald Trump’s election has always bothered me. I hate to sound naïve, or too idealistic, but I always wondered why countries couldn’t just “work it out”, ignoring the deep-rooted relations, connections, and conflicts nations have with each other. I never understood international relationships or the nitty-gritty details behind certain country’s hatred for one another. I never understood the personal interests of each country or why certain nations simply refused to come to compromises. Before joining Model United Nations, I also believed the actual United Nations was efficient in solving problems. Basically, before participating in Model UN I had a very optimistic view of this world, that the goal of each sovereign nation was to contribute to building worldwide peace and helping to sustain life. It wasn’t until after learning about the complicated relationships between countries and how politics, unfortunately, works that I realized achieving world piece takes a little bit more than just chatting over a cup of coffee and fixing systemic issues that have existed virtually forever.
Model UN, despite only having gone to one conference so far has kept me up to date on relevant topics and in a world full of many individuals who are unaware, that is truly a privilege. Knowing what’s happening around you is so important and it was only after I started following the news that I noticed how blind I was to the many injustices in this world, Model UN will keep you alert, aware, and it serves to defeat ignorance. The particular conference I went to dealt with cybersecurity in the European Council, a topic which I knew was extremely relevant but knew almost nothing about, especially regarding solutions to the issue. On top of the fact Modle UN keeps you educated, it instills in you the confidence to speak. The main reason I joined Model UN was that I wanted to push myself into publicly speaking. It isn’t like me to throw myself at my biggest fears but I knew I had to gain this confidence or at least pretend to in order to give myself a voice, something that is absolutely necessary today. I have only been in my Model UN club for a short period of time, and I have only been to one conference so I cannot say that all my fears have magically disappeared but I can definitely improvement which is always great.
Finally, Model UN will force you to make friends, or at least interact with people you probably otherwise would never talk to. Negotiation is a large part of Model UN, which measn you must talk to other delegates and after a while, you definately become friendly with one another and start talking to eachother more as friends than as delegates or representatives of other countries. At the end of the day, you both are students who have a lot in common, trying to make it as a delegate in a setting that may be a little scary. You’ll meet people from all around the state, country and perhaps even the world and that’s an amazing experience.
Model UN might not be for everyone, but I strongly urge everyone to try it out at least once.
