My SIMUN Experience

Overall I felt that SIMUN was a very fun and exciting experience. There was a lot of hard work involved, but the work paid off in the end. I felt that one of the greatest advantages of the whole process was being in an environment with upperclassmen globies. They were all very nice and helpful. They were also considerate when a mistake was made, and they took into consideration that this was our first model UN.
With that being said I feel that as a first year delegate, I did good job. I tried to be involved and understand the scenario to my best capability. I also tried very hard to speak as often as possible, however, it was hard to figure out what position my country would take in a scenario. Therefore, it was hard to speak about things I was unsure about and I felt like I said the wrong stuff at times. I definitely let my nerves get the best of my speeches. I also struggled when having to ask questions, because I just could not think of what a good question would be. Many times the speeches people gave were not confusing or non-understandable, and so I did not really have a question to ask. I will argue that when I did ask a question, or had time to think up one, they were very good questions. I just don't think that on-the-spot thinking is a skill that I possess and that is what may have brought me down in the experience.
While preparing for SIMUN I felt like I did not do all that I could. That may have been an area where I slacked. I did a lot of research on each of the topics, but the research on my country was not really that great. Having the USA, I think I overestimated the amount of info I knew on my own country. I figured it wouldn't be that hard because I knew a lot from history class in school. I was wrong.
I think that is where I will definitely change my habits for next year. I will severely inform myself on the country that I receive and educate myself on its opinion within the world. I feel that it might make things easier if we had a list of the countries in our SIMUN group. That way, we could spend our time researching issues, allies, and enemies within our group, instead of all over the world. Next year I will also make it my goal to speak more and make better speeches. Also, overall I hope I can ask better questions and not look like a fool by saying the wrong thing.