My first speaking experience
Don’t assume that I DO NOT TALK.
If a monkey and I start to fight, it will probably be a tight competition (if you want more proof then you are free to contact my parents and ask them. They SURELY will be able to explain it to you)
Ok. Coming back to why I titled this “My first speaking experience”
So amid this current situation, I attended a Model United Nations conference. For the people who don’t know about it, in simple terms it is a conference for school students and other students all over the world. It was my first time being in such conferences. So that is that. I will be basically talking about my experience right from enrolling myself to having the actual conference/debate.
Well, I DID say I am going to start right from the top that is the registration/enrolling process but I think it will start being a little too boring. So let’s jump to my PREP session.
As my weekly activity is MUN in my school, I did have some (JUST SOME) basic info about MUN. But that would definitely NOT help me with the actual debate. So just after you register, they send you background information on the agenda. I DID read it but just a few pages out of the booklet of 10-12 pages. These kinds of background guides are good for people who don’t know ANYTHING about the assigned topic. In my case, the topic was the Consequences of the Pandemic (COVID 19). So why I didn’t read the background guide?
Ok.
WE ALL KNOW ABOUT THIS FILTHY TOPIC AT LEAST A LITTLE BIT!!
So, being a normal person, I procrastinated a little. But again, I had learned lessons from my previous competitions and exams that procrastination is a very very HAZARDOUS activity. Keeping this lesson in mind, I started of researching for this topic 7 to 8 days prior to the conference.
I first started with researching my countries profile and its foreign policy which is essential before one searches anything else. And an extra note that MUN is simply NOT a debate. It has many rules and regulations similar to the UN which is the reason it takes time to fit in. The big difference between UN and MUN is that the UN takes actual decisions for the global benefit, whereas, as its name suggests, MUN is just the model of UN and doesn’t contribute to any global matters.
Jumping back to where I left, after researching my countries profile, I listened to a few debates tackling with the topic. Trust me, it is a great help.
Then with creating the position paper. This is basically an introduction of the country along with the position of the country during the problem or issue. I got Canada. Fun Country though.
Then 2 days before the conference (Yes ! writing the position paper took me 5 whole days !) I started to prepare my opening speech. This one is pretty self-explanatory. This is going to be your first speech in the GSL which is the General Speakers List.
After finishing up with the speech, I just relaxed, a very important step.
To be honest, I did finish my speech a DAY before, so there was nothing else to do but to relax ~_~
After all these days, FINALLY, the conference day arrived. I had this weird feeling the day before. The thing is that an average person is nervous before any special day. I was not. And because of this, I got this terrible feeling that maybe I am overconfident. But as always, I shared this piece of my mind with my father and as usual, he cleared this thought with a simple 30 min talk which made me feel a whole lot more confident (yes I said confident. Not overconfident).
Now let’s jump to the ACTUAL CONFERENCE DAY !
We got got the links and all the required information about the procedure and stuff a day before so there was no confusion.
The meeting started with the GSL as I stated above.
I am not writing this to tell you about MUN. It is About my experience of public speaking for the first time properly (if we don’t count the speeches that we have to give in front of the whole class to completely embarrass ourselves. I don’t exactly categorize that as “public speaking” although literally it is)
As I mentioned, I wasn’t nervous. But just a little anxious. I had read about the procedure and the working of the committee.
And then it started……
It started and you know what happened ?
……
I SPOKE !!!!!
(was it interesting ? No ? Ook then)
It might not be THAT big of a deal for some people but I actually spoke. You see whenever I have these kinds of things, I never prepare, resulting in me being under confident thus no speaking.
But this time I prepared and WOALLA ! I spoke.
So I DID NOT get anything (you know the best delegate stuff, but I still spoke. And more than that the AMOUNT OF RESEARCH !)
WHOO !
[O. I am being honest here that I did feel a bit dejected not receiving anything considering the amount I spoke and the amount I researched, but as ALWAYS, my father explained the main goal of these events. The main goal is to speak and to gain knowledge. That is how I again became confident.]
So ya….
I am trying different things to write on or else I’ll get bored superr easy.
Let me know If you liked reading and would want to see more of this kind.
Until next time
TA TA !