Let me ask you ask a question, have you ever been stuck for words?
I’m pretty sure all of us have, at one point or another.
How about being stuck for words in-front of an audience who had high expectations for what you were about to say?
Maybe not all of us.
MUN. Many had heard about it. Few had experienced it. The 17th of April was a day Ronit Ahuja, 13, was looking forward to. It was going to be the day he would travel to the neighbouring country, Malaysia for his first Model United Nations conference, wearing a sleek, sharp, dynamic suit (which he actually was excited for as he had never worn one before!).
“As we landed, there was a tingling sense of excitement of excitement in the atmosphere, yet some of us were worried as the conference was just about to start. That meant instead of going to the hotel and organising our room and suitcases, we had to go straight to the school, change in the bathroom, leave all of our stuff in a room and head off for the opening ceremony.” said Ronit.
He then added that there was a feeling of anxiety in the atmosphere as they rushed towards the school, which surprisingly, based on their situation. seemed just about right. Not good.
As they reached the school, they went to straight to the washroom/toilet, changed (which according to him and his peers took extremely long), and walked towards a tightly packed room where they had to leave their belongings, and take what they needed, but due to the pressure of the seemingly endless changes to the schedule, Ronit grabbed what he saw he thought he needed without giving an ounce of thought as to what he should have for the conference. Big Mistake.
After an opening speech and introduction of the crew, chairs and heads of this conference, at their massive theater, everybody was ushered to their respective rooms. Ronit found the table for Japan, the country he was representing for Disarmament I. He then proceeded to sit down and take out all the materials, and try to be organised for once since he had landed. But then he realised there was something wrong. Something was missing.
The thought of him forgetting something soon dissipated as he got up to introduce himself, walking around and talking to the other delegates.
At around 12:30, the conference was underway. The chair hammered his gavel onto a wooden panel as he spoke “Delegates, please take your seats”. We then got straight into the introduction which consisted of the chairs introducing themselves and the rules and attendance. The introduction went relatively fast, which then led to the start of opening speech. Ronit was excited as he had prepared himself for the opening speech. It was the first impression, which was important as he needed to show the other delegates that he was a strong, critical thinker. As he looked through his bag for his speech, he realised it was missing. He franticly, yet quietly rummaged through his bag, but unfortunately, he couldn’t find it, and there was no way to get the speech in his bag, which, then he realised, was secured behind a locked door.
His turn was coming up, and he had to think of something immediately. Quite a sudden jolt!
At around 12:42, As his country was being called upon to give his opening speech, Ronit got up, a bit disoriented and walked towards a small wooden platform.
“Okay, delegate, you may begin”
Ronit stood on the platform, and began, slowly, but surely. “Honorable Chairs, fellow delegates and esteemed guests. It is truly a pleasure to be here. The delegate of Japan would like address the issues that come with this topic” and suddenly he froze. It seemed like forever until these words hit his ear.
“Delegate, please proceed to finish or continue your speech, your time is running out”
Ronit shared his thoughts that time with us, “Those words hit me like a bullet, sweat trickled down my neck, people stared at me, I felt like a football player, about to kick the winning goal, thousands of eyes on me, on every single move I make, like they were predators and I was their prey.”
“Honestly, he was a bit shaky, you could hear it in his voice, he was frozen, seemed like he had a little stage fright. In the end he sort of rushed it, trying to recall his speech and the statistics, and seemed like they were accurate.” said Joshua who later became a very close friend of Ronit during the duration of the event
After the speech, he went back to his seat, a bit embarrassed, but a bit happy, thinking it went better than it did which it seems like it did. Phew!
“Honestly, I felt much better after I said it, I made a few communications with other delegates who understood my situation and that is how I made friends.” He also said “The day then went by like a breeze, I made new friends and partners for the resolution, and ended the stressful day with a trip to a humongous mall that was connected to the hotel, where we ate dinner and were given time to roam around and buy what we wanted.” Sounds like a really chill and lazy yet deserved ending to a stressful day!
After the scare, he became more organised especially since he had an actual hotel room to share with one person, who was his very good friend, and had more time. “Everything basically went uphill from there. It truly was memorable experience that also taught me a valuable lesson. Never rush things that you are not supposed to rush. Always be self aware” Seems like Ronit learned quite a lesson there. The smallest ripple can induce much larger chain of reactions that you cannot control. Remember that.
What a day!
Sources: Ronit Ahuja, Joshua Woody, UWCSEA CIMS (finding the dates of the trip and timings), Google Docs/Pages (For referring to my opening speech).
