When I was a Delegate at Evergreen Girls' State

Back during the summer of 1992, the summer before my senior year of high school, I was a delegate to Evergreen Girls' State. Girls' State is an event put together by the American Legion Auxiliary, where girls learn the workings of government. In order to be selected as a delegate, I had to fill out an application, as well as go through a rigorous interview with a woman from the American Legion Auxiliary and the two girls who represented my school the previous year. Two other girls besides me were interviewed, and I ended up being selected as one of our school's delegates to the event.

I remember feeling nervous when I arrived at Central Washington University, because I only knew two people. After I registered, I went to the dorm and arrived at my floor, where I received a warm welcome from my junior counselor. I noticed a sign on the wall next to her, which stated that our floor was the city of Ryan, which was located in Billings County. I went to my dorm room to drop off my things and look through my Girls' State booklet. I learned that the theme of Girls' State was "The Women of Girls' State," and that each city and county was named after a famous woman who had been a former delegate to Girls' State. My perusal of the booklet was interrupted by the arrival of my roommate; we introduced ourselves and quickly became friends. A short time later, we attended our first assembly, where we learned what would be expected of us during the week; we also had a former Girls' State delegate as a guest speaker.

After the assembly, we returned to our dorm, where we had our first city meeting. Our junior counselor passed around a roll of toilet paper and said, "Take as much as you need." Some girls, afraid there would be a toilet paper shortage, took a lot. After we had all taken some toilet paper, the junior counselor explained that this was an icebreaker activity; for each piece of toilet paper a girl had, she had to tell a fact about herself. After the activity, our junior counselor explained city government, and we took our bar exam.