Last Tuesday, a friend asked me to take her place representing Hoban at the Cleveland International Model United Nations (CLEIMUN). I went to Ms. Reed for my assignment, and she greeted me with nothing but kindness and helpful articles.

I had been to exactly one meeting with a friend before and knew nothing about Model U.N. With only the concept of international politics between the Permanent Five (P5), I took on the role of the delegate from the Dominican Republic within the political council.

Early in the process, I hit a road bump.

See, I figured the D.R. would be easier to represent than a more prominent country. With only two days until the conference, I had to learn everything I could in a limited time frame. Little importance meant little to understand and little need to talk.

However, one of the topics of discussion remains a huge problem in the Dominican Republic: racial profiling. In fact, the country was even named in the information packet. I was subliminally expected to know how to write a resolution paper and debate the subject following the Parliamentary Procedure.

I read online sources, gathered information and then resolved to learn the details on the bus to the event. After all, if my mom could learn criminal procedure on the way to take her bar exam and pass with flying colors, I could comprehend enough to survive the weekend.

Surprisingly, I didn’t miss the mark. Come Thursday, MUN powerhouses Peter Stitzel and Xavier Dirker joined me in the political council as Kenya and Iraq, respectively. Together, the three of us took charge over a day of extensive lobbying. Everyone in our room acted friendly and willing to compromise on issues. Soon, we’d built a group of good friends who helped me along.

On our second day, we entered our first major debate over a resolution paper on the topic of religious nationalism, written by a collective of first-world countries. A group of us attempted to strike down the entire paper through a massive amendment and it took over an hour of arguing to get through it. Despite our efforts, the paper passed. 

What made the conversation so memorable was how everyone invested in their characters. North Korea proudly advocated for religious nationalism because of his “great leader,” Iraq denounced the West at every turn and Ukraine explained that he’d vote for anything Russia didn’t. In its most ridiculous moments, it devolved into nothing less than organized chaos with our chairs attempting to keep decorum.

Day three and the events took a turn into the more-structured. We entered a crisis simulation. While the central and south Americas struggled for an answer to a volcanic eruption, Middle Eastern delegates united to create a coalition of least-relevant countries. Together with Peru, North Korea and Russia, we attempted to drop an atomic bomb on the volcano.

The atmosphere certainly bordered on insanity and by the end of the three-day experience, I didn’t want to leave. I wished I had joined Model UN earlier in my high school career, but I’m glad that I was able to participate. All in all, my only regret is that Bella didn’t need a replacement earlier.