On Saturday, November 5th, I woke up early to attend the Youth and Government district conference representing Hays High School. It is my second year participating in Youth and Government, and while I was in the media section last year, this year I decided to try something new and participated in the legislative section this time, where I wrote a bill and presented it.

While I was nervous about it because it meant I had to get up in front of people and argue for my bill, as well as debate about other people’s bills, I’m glad I decided to branch out this year. I had a lot of fun hearing about other people’s bills and getting to share my thoughts on them. It was quite interesting getting to see people’s ideas for how to improve Texas. From repealing the open container law to implementing a draft system for blood donations, there were certainly a lot of interesting ideas being discussed.

Though it was the kind of event that everyone got dressed up to go to, I had a lot of fun there. While we were waiting for the rest of the legislative section so we could have a session with more people, the chairperson proposed that someone make up a fake bill to talk about so we would have something to do. So of course, someone got up and, in a Russian accent, presented their idea for a bill that would replace English as a required subject in schools with Russian. No one spoke up against it. With a couple amendments, when passed, the bill replaced all subjects with Russian and had books by Karl Marx as required reading. It was a shame that no one in the media section was there – surely they’d make it to the state competition with a story like that.

Overall, I had a lot of fun at this year’s district conference. It was a learning experience for me, as I have never done anything like that before where I had to speak in front of people and debate with them. I was nervous at first, but after giving my opinion on others’ bills, by the time mine came around, I was able to present it with ease and the bill passed. To anyone that thinks they might be interested in doing something like this, I would strongly recommend checking out Youth and Government next year. There are so many different sections and things you can do in them, so if you’re interested in any of that, join Youth and Government!