Georgia Girls State: The best Gov. Camp Ever

IF YOU WANT TO SEE MORE ABOUT GGA UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL I HAVE A HIGHLIGHT ON MY INSTAGRAM PAGE DEDICATED TO LAST SUMMERS SESSION! CHECK OUT MY SOCIAL MEDIA!

Welcome back to the blog! Today I am going to be sharing my experiences at Girls State. Not a lot of people know what this is and I am actually kind of sad about that because this is one of the best experiences that I have ever had. Do to the Coronavirus I was not able to attend Disney World and now Girls State is also off of the table. (I ALSO WAS NOT ATTENDING THIS SUMMER DO TO LACK OF PTO BECAUSE OF OTHER VACATIONS THIS YEAR)

Girls State is a type of Government camp that meets for one week out of the Summer for students going into their senior year. (THERE IS ALSO A BOYS STATE FOR THE GUYS) Now do not let the GOVERNMENT part scare you because it is actually very fun while being very educational. The week goes into depth about how our Judicial system works, the girls are separated into Nationalists (BLUE) or Federalist (RED). The color that you get represents what party you belong to, you get a colored lanyard with your parties name on it as well as a name tag and a bag that has your color as well. The girls get placed into their specific party at check-in, this helps with the flow for the rest of the week and one of the best ways to meet new people. Every day you are going into House and Senate meetings in different classrooms where you go over a Bill that a Citizen (the girls) wrote. (YOUR NAME TAG TELLS YOU IF YOU ARE HOUSE OR SENATE YOU CAN BE EITHER A NAT OR A FED)

Summer of 2017. First time as a JC

That is pretty much just a tiny overview of how the week begins, there is plenty more to get into! This is the week that Girls State is normally held so I decided to share a little bit about the experiences that I had at this amazing camp. I was sponsored by my High School to go and someone from the American Legion Hosts you. (THAT IS WHAT GIRLS STATE IS THROUGH AMERICAN LEGION AND YOU HAVE TO BE ASKED TO GO BY YOUR PLACE OF EDUCATION) Most students asked to attend are either in ROTC, some kind of History or Government class/club or in the National Honor Society. I was in the National Honor Society and was very close to the ROTC instructor. Actually I and the other young lady asked to attend were in NHS. We attended the Camp at Georgia Southern the Summer of 2016, two months before our senior year began. I was a Federalist (Red), she was a Nationalist (BLUE). The woman running the Government Camp tried their best to separate the girls coming from the same schools because they wanted the young ladies to venture out and make new friendships with the other students, this I absolutely love because it forces you to get out of your comfort zone and try things that you may normally not. I was also placed in the Senate and she was placed inside the House. Neither one of us wrote a Bill, but we both thought/tried to do it. I knew that the only subject that I would like to write/argue about is an extremely controversial subject and I was not ready to be scrutinized by 300 girls that I did not know! There was a ton of well written intriguing Bills that the other intelligent ladies had written and fought to get passed. This was one of the most interesting parts of the week, I got to hear a thousand different reasons, good and bad, why a particular bill should or should not be passed. The opinions that came out of these young women were things that I had not even yet thought about, it made my brain churn and it actually helped me realize the way I view certain problems in our country. There were also some bills that were just low key and pretty funny, but worth it all the same. Although if a Bill was passed in Senate but not passed in the House of Representatives, unfortunately, the Bill was denied. (EVERYONE TAKES A VOTE) But if it was passed in both House and Senate, the elected Governor of Girls State (WE WILL GET INTO THAT IN A MINUTE) will either give it her stamp of approval or her denial live at Graduation Friday morning.

Summer of 2016. I was a citizen

Throughout the course of the week City, County, and State meetings are held. To clarify, when the girls arrive at camp not only are they labeled House or Senate and Fed or Nat, they also get separated into different cities which ultimately places them in a designated county. For instance, there are 12 different Cities and 4 different counties. When I was a Citizen/Student in 2016 I was placed in Baldwin City which means that I was also in Walton County. (ALL CITIES AND COUNTIES USED ARE REAL IN GEORGIA) Ironically the summer of 2017 I spent my first year as a Junior Counselor or JC and I just happened to be placed back in the same city and county with the same instructor that I was when I was a Citizen. GOOOO BALDWIN! (I WAS ALSO A JC LAST SUMMER BUT I WAS IN A DIFFERENT CITY FOR THE FIRST TIME) Now that you understand that I can explain the meetings. Each caucus would appoint and vote on different roles that pertain to either the city, county, or state. For example, in the City, you need to appoint a Mayor who will then take charge of the meetings, City Council members who will vote on laws and regulations for that city, a Fire chief and a Police Cheif I cannot remember which one had to make sure everyone was awake every morning, and so on and so forth. The County Officials were a little more complex. Like a Coroner, Board of education, Sherif, District Attorney, and so on and so forth. Obviously the State level was the highest and most influential. We needed a Governor and LT. Governor, Senators, Secretary of State, Attorney General, and we can continue to go down the line. (EVERYONE MEETS FOR THE STATE ASSEMBLY) The Speaker of the House and the President Protem of the Senate also had to be elected so those sessions could take place. (THERE ARE OTHER OFFICES IN BOTH HOUSE AND SENATE THAT NEED TO BE FILLED, BUT THAT IS A LOT TO GET INTO) They may sound like a long drawn out process, which it definitely can be, but for the most part, it was really fun and inspirational getting to hear the speeches given by the girls running for each office. Most offices that the girls ran for they would put up signs or posters stating “VOTE FOR (INSERT NAME HERE) FOR (INSERT OFFICE HERE)!” It was insane to see all the walls, including the elevator, being covered in campaign posters! Not only that but if you ran for SENATOR you had to get a petition signed and the two elected senators get to represent the state of Georgia at Girls Nation in Washington, D.C. where the Bills passed by the Governor will be presented and voted on for the REAL state of Georgia.

Now for the fun part! Remember how I said each City, County, and State could make up laws… weeeelll we all most certainly did! These rules turned out to be hilarious when you hit a city limit and the rule is to walk on all 4’s, guess what… you must walk on all 4’s all the way through the city! (NO JOKE THIS REALLY WAS A LAW) It could also be dancing and singing or stepping you can only step in the circles made of tape. The counties got a little crazier, WE HAD MURDER TRIALS PEOPLE! The Coroner, Sherif, and Judge come into play in this scenario (THAT REALLY HAPPENED, BOTH YEARS I ATTENDED) The girls would hold a trial and a convicted murderer would be put in jail! Last year there was an unexpected ZOMBIE outbreak and I and the other JC’S were killed by the 3 SISTERS! We even had body tape around us! Things got pretty wild!

One of the other buoyant moments of the experience was the County and State Rallies! These became insane! In each Rally, you were separated into your designated party, the Federalists or Nationalists and you would come up with all kinds of different cheers in hopes to prove that your PARTY was the superior one. For example, cheer for the Feds was, “SWAT THE NATS” to a particular toon. (THERE WAS ALSO LOTS OF DANCING) For the Nats there was one like, “ SIT BACK RELAX, DON’T MAKE THE NATS ATTACK” Or the most common one, “MY PARTY IS KRUNKETY KRUNKER THAN YOUR PARTY!” Things became pretty real at these RALLIES! Not only that but each City also had to do a ROLL CALL! This is similar to the rallies, but instead of proving your party is the best, you had to prove that your city was the best. This would also decide who went to dinner first, so it was a pretty big deal! Each City also had to do an Inspirational. That means that all the cities had a designated time during an assembly where they would get up on stage and say a quote, put on a skit, do a song, or perform anything that would bring inspiration, kindness, and love to the camp.

Graduation Day summer 2019

I know that there are a ton more items that we do all week at this camp, but I do not want to spoil everything and I would have to distribute this post into multiple if I listed all the details. So instead I am going to give out a few vivacious, lively, and somewhat scary situations that happened at the most eventful GGA I have ever been to and that just happened to be last summer. So for one we had the Fire department show up because apparently a bag of popcorn got left in the microwave a little too long! You can imagine what happened after that, do not worry no one was hurt, but it was definitely the joke of the week! This was also the SUMMER of the MEMES! No joke there are over 100 GGA memes that were created over the course of that week. (I ALSO HAVE A HIGHLIGHT DEDICATED TO MOST OF THOSE ON MY INSTAGRAM) Then there was the MISSING STUDENT scandal and she just so happened to be in MY CITY and was the counselor and my responsibility! (WE FOUND HER AND EVERYTHING WAS ALRIGHT) One of my favorite moments was pretending to be dead on the floor with body tape surrounding me. It was hilarious because all the JC’S decided to scare the girls by lying dead in the hallway at the entrance of the building so they would have to do an entire investigation on our mass murder! we should not have done this on the last morning though because we never actually got to it.

I guess that pretty much sums it up! I am so grateful that I was one of the people chosen (OUT OF MY HIGH SCHOOL) to attend this amazing camp! If it was not for the experience I would not have met some wonderful people, became more aware, confident, and knowledgable about our States Judicial system. I met some amazing young woman as a Citizen and as a JC helping the girls maneuver their way through in getting an all-around better more in-depth experience. Not to mention that I met one of my Fiances work buddies (also a friend), girlfriend, last summer at this camp. She was a Citizen at the time and was making a very interesting speech and had mentioned her Firefighter boyfriend, which prompted me to raise my hand and snap because I was also dating a Firefighter. (at the time, now engaged) She then found me after the assembly and we started to share the information which led us to the conclusion that we live in a very small world! We sent our Significant other a photo of us girls together and the rest fell into place because she is now one of my bridesmaids!

I hope that you enjoyed my schpeel on all things Georgia Girls State. I hope that if you attended GGA at any point in time, that this brought back some precious memories of your time there and prompts you to get involved again or spread the word (IF YOU DO NOT ALREADY). If you have never been apart of GGA and you are in High School I would ask someone about it and see if your school offers it if you missed out on it, I hope this tells you exactly what it is and how much it means to different communities and the American Legion Auxillary and to me. Thank you so much for tuning in, until next time…

For more information about Girls State please visit the website here! Happy Friday!

Shayna