Today's been a god day, for the most part. Just the luncheon speech was bad. I spoke to two of the other Georgia delegates. They felt the speaker spent too much time on slavery. They were disappointed about the lack of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the speech and the progression from slavery to the work to unify races. Apparently, the gist of the speech was to be about Adrian's role in the Underground Railroad. A few others of the Georgia group plan on spending free time tomorrow to tour the UR spots in town. Now had the speaker just gotten to that point, instead of being in an infinite loop about slavery, I would have stayed for the speech.

Just had a small conversation with a guy from Texas. Even sent him a Gmail invite. To him, I have no accent. He couldn't tell where I was from. I claimed the Military Brat factor. Speaking of which, it's coming to play for some voting I have to do. I am representing South Georgia. Of the 8 students from Georgia that came, Only 3 of us are from South Georgia. I was expecting to be an observer. Well, we have to vote on these resolutions. I must vote nay on Resolution 1. While I agree with the spirit of the resolution, the thought of having no military is not comforting. My father spent 18 years, a majority in peace, in the Army to defend and protect my nation. Paraphrasing him about an old Roman quote, one of the best ways for peace is the threat of war. I don't want to go to war. Lord knows how much Desert Shield/Storm did a number on me. However, I do realize we need a military. I'll probably vote yes on the majority of the other resolutions.

We also had workshops today. I attended the ones on Pop Culture and Dating and Faith. We mainly discussed spirituality in pop culture. One of the young Ohio girls learned about hypercolor shirts in the workshop. We talked about music, books, TV, and movies. It wasn't what I was expecting, but it was nice. The Dating and Faith workshop was great. It reenforced the idea about loving yourself. Also, it brought up the idea,as I put it, of compromising without compromising yourself. We shouldn't have to change who we are to love someone. One of the speakers shared his story of how, at age 23, he thought he was to get married. As the relationship progressed, he started to lose the parts that made him who he is. He used Mr. Potato Head as an example to illustrate the change. He has since left that relationship, has a new woman in his life that cares for him, and he regained the friends he lost as a result of losing himself. It was a moving story. It reaffirmed the path I've decided to take in love after being burned. It's what people have been telling me for years.

And the funniest part of today? Lunch. The food here has been bad, except for the chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. But it's not the cake that gets me. For lunch, they had Tastybird chicken nuggets. Man, they don't sell those in the stores anymore and I haven't had them in a while. There was no limit on how many we could eat. I ate two plates of nuggets to make up for lost Tastybird time. I told my dad all about it. He thought it was funny. I know my mother would have.

I don't know how tomorrow will be like. I have meetings, voting, group meetings, plenary, and other things. We haven't had that many breaks while here. Bedtime's an hour. I'm ready to sleep NOW. However, there's no net access in my room.

[♪ Listening to: "The Water" - Amy Grant]

Je m'occupe toujours He qui est comme Dieu.

Posted by Shawn at May 26, 2006 11:01 PM in General.