"Summer Trip" Girl's State

Hey everyone, it's Tiffany.

So starting off with my "Summer Trip" series, we have Girl's State first!
From my guesses, most of you don't even know what Girl's State is, so before I get into my time at Girl's State, let me give you a /brief/ description of Girl's State.

Alright so Girl's State is a six day long program (Sunday-Friday). And basically if you have an interest in government, or in women's rights (feminism) then Girl's State is the program for you. When you get to Girl's State you are divided into counties, cities, and also federalists and nationalists. Just because you are a federalist/nationalist at Girl's State does not necessarily mean you actually are a federalist/nationalist, it's just a way for them to separate everyone for elections. So you run for different governing positions at the city level, county level, and state level. You even have the chance to run for governor, which is pretty cool during rally night (which I'll explain later on). But even if you are not into government or feminism, that's not what Girl's State is only about. You also meet people that will be your friend for life, it also gives you a ton of opportunities that you may not get if you did not attend Girl's State. Overall it is a really great program and I recommend everyone to go.

And don't worry boys, there's a Boy's State too. I don't know much about Boy's State but everyone that I know that has gone has loved it.

Alright so now to my experiences at Girl's State. So this year was my second year at Girl's State, I went last year as a delegate and this year as a counselor. I will say, being a counselor is so much more fun then being a delegate. Being a delegate was a ton of fun too but I loved being a counselor.

Now for counselors we have to be there on Saturday. When we get there we have several meetings and little lessons we have to go through and then we get to go to our dorm rooms (in Arkansas, Girl's State is held at Harding University), once we get there we unpack and then the fun begins. DECORATING. For our city (Montgomery) we did a Hollywood theme.

It was a lot of fun decorating, a little difficult since it was outside, then once we finished decorating we had to go to each of our girls rooms (all 17 of them) and lay out their textbooks, pens, shirts, name tags and the oh so famous visors. Then the next day was pretty calm /crazy/ when the girls were arriving and getting ready for our first city meeting. Then after that we are either having elections, or a session in the Benson (which is actuallly Antartica, its /freezing/ inside there.)
We also have a few other things we do, like inauguration night, go to the state capitol, rally night, talent show, and overall bond with each other.

Montgomery City Counselors

Montgomery City Delegates

Montgomery Feds (Rally Night)

 So rally night is one of the funnest nights at Girl's State. You get to dress in either all blue or all red to support your party (nationalists or federalists). Its basically like a big pep rally. So you spend time making up chants based on your group and who your candidate for governor is. And then everyone running for state positions will get to go through this tunnel we make with our bodies as we cheer them on and they run on to stage, then once everyone running is on stage, the speeches begin.

Montgomery City: Inauguration Night

So inauguration night. It's one of the biggest  nights, because the delegates do not have to wear their visors. Which is a big deal because we dress up for inauguration night and wearing the visors defeats the purpose of doing your hair.

Montgomery City

So that's my experience at Girl's State. I really love it. If anyone has any questions about Girl's State or even Boy's State feel free to comment and I'll try my best to answer the best I can.

Talk to you soon!!

XOXO, Tiff!!