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Crystal Conde English 1101 Sec 49 Literacy Narrative

The tension rises. You get nervous. Words are flying across the room and you are the center of attention. Im sure it has happened to all of you, this feeling. It is your turn to talk but what really is there to say. I am standing in the front of the room and thinking a million thoughts have nothing to do with the subject at hand. There were about 37 students in that class and each seat were arranged to all face the front. I felt the students eyes watching me like a hawk. I was standing at the podium in the front of the room fidgeting with my pen. The students turn to look at me as I am standing there arguing my point What do you have to say about this Iran. Are you going to launch the weapons? Are you continuing your research of nuclear weapons? Uhh... Model UN was intense. It was my sophomore year of high school. I was enrolled in the Academy of International Studies program at Independence High School. Each course we selected had to be globally focused in some way to meet the requirements of the Academy. I chose Model UN my tenth grade year because it sounded interesting. The first day I entered that class my friend Jen told me I am so unprepared. I heard the teacher is really tough and I dont even watch the news. Crystal, this class better is easy. Ms. Willett was the AP Us History teacher and treated all her students at a higher level whether it was an AP class or not. The students slowly started to trickle in the first few days. Once our 37 comrades were all settled in that damp and humid room 409 Ms. Willett started class. I am passing out the major project assignment. Most of you will not read it but it will be a big part of your grade. You are to dress professional, be prepared and know your

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country. There are more guidelines in the packet this debate is far in advance from now so do not lose this paper, I will not be giving you another. I turned to look at Jen Is she serious will all this work? It is only the first week. Jen responded while skimming the packet that was handed out to us I know we to research, write a report, and debate. Wait, and if we dont come sign a resolution we get points off. This is so stupid what is the point of this. I should have taken Chinese or something. As time for the debate approached Ms. Willett reopened the topic for discussion I hope you all are excited I will be assigning countries! If you have any questions let me know and I will try to clear things up for you. Christian said This shouldnt be that bad I hope I get a good country. It honestly didnt matter what country I got. The teacher had slips of papers made with the countries she had selected to use this semester. She grabbed a big coffee mug she had sitting on the edge of her desk and took all the pencils out of it and put the slips of paper in. She shook them a little and proceeded to walk around the class asking students to take the first one they grabbed. Ms. Willett went down aisle by aisle and finally she got to my row. I casually picked up a paper and was assigned Iran. Ms. Willett peaked over my shoulder and whispered Oh thats a good one. Funny how things work I was thinking of assigning you that one but I decided to do it this way instead. I remember I was tired that day and as a result just sat in class quietly. Once Ms. Willett passed out all the slips of paper and everyone was assigned a country she went on to discuss the project in detail. My mind was pre occupied with the vast unimportant and unlimited thoughts a sophomore in high school could have but I did try to listen to her. Alright class, next Thursday we will meet in the computer lab. We will start our research and prepare for the debate. You will have to complete the questions in the packet I handed out earlier on the research you will be doing. Now lets brainstorm some topics on what

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to discuss on the first debate. We picked nuclear weapons. It seemed really interesting and I was feeling good about the debate. Just as Ms. Willett has said that Thursday we met in the media center. I sat next to my friends so I could talk to them. It took me about 20 minutes to log into the school computers because they had a tendency of being very slow. I got on the internet and started reading old news articles, current events and also some background history to understand what was going on. I even had to read into Irans different religious makeup to grasp the whole concept. I answered the standard questions that were given and wrote a reflection on what I learned as we were assigned. Class went by surprising quick that day but I wasnt complaining. Weeks passed and debate day was finally here! I woke up that morning brushed my teeth, and went about my normal routine. I had laid out my clothes the night before to get ready because I know I had to wake up early and I didnt want to be late. I cheerfully put on a nice navy blue dress with heels to match. When I got to school you could immediately tell who was in my class we were all very easy to tell apart by how we were dressed. Everyone kept asking me Crystal, why are you so dressed up today? I secretly liked when people asked me that because then I got to them how cool my class is and about the debate we were doing. As the bell for third period rung we walked into the classroom. The air was crisp and hot as it had always been. Each student had one country to represent so each student grabbed their designated placards and found their seat. The teacher walked in and she assigned the order of countries reading off their response letter at the podium in the front of the class. She made sure we all agreed on an appropriate time limit, question limit and follow up limit. Once that was settled debate was in action. It is pretty evident that when talking about nuclear warfare who

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would be the big talkers North Korea a communist nation openly making nuclear weapons, China a powerhouse with a rich economy, USA and of course me, Iran the country that was secretly making nuclear weapons. We dominated the floor. The room was flying with questions for me to answer. I am okay with being put on the spot but at the time I was shy and nervous. It was a good thing I had done my research because it was starting to get intense. Countries were arguing one side was for nuclear weapons and said that they must be prepared just in case, others said that we could use the science for making weapons and apply it to energy to benefit their country and some were totally opposed. When responding to a question or giving an opinion it had to reflect what your country thought and not what you as an individual thought. It was hard at first but after a while everyone got the hang of it. All throughout the debate we would pass notes to each other commenting on what someone had said and possible questions to ask. Many of us formed alliances this way as well that became helpful when writing our resolution papers. The debate was student led but the teacher every now and then intervened and passed along her set of notes as well. Everything was going well and class was coming to an end so I starting drafting up resolutions with countries who felt the same way about nuclear weapon policy as Iran did. We had starting thinking about allowing all countries to have nuclear weapons but with limitations. We were coming to an end soon when Argentina said that if Iran passed a pro-weapon resolution they would stop buying oil from us. Many other passive countries agreed and sided with them. My country was prosperous and that would have been a major problem for that was unaccounted for. My mind went blank. I had no idea how to respond. I just stood there and tried to think of something but it didnt quite work out the way I had wanted it to. Umm I started to get frigidity and play with my pencil. I couldnt go back on my pro-weapon resolution but I couldnt

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cause a global embargo either. I stood in front of the class with all eyes watching as all the credit I had built up from doing so well during debate crumbled underneath me. I made my response up explaining how we had other resources to provide other than oil. Ms. Willett called a break from the debate and to start drafting the resolutions and get ready to present what we came up with. I stuck to my pro-weapon resolution with Saudi Arabia, North Korea and a few others. After the debate Ms. Willett started talking to me more. Im guessing I interested her more and she wanted to get to know me. Turns out she wanted me to meet the ambassador of Nicaragua but that is a story for a different time.