AFS Blogger Contest Entry

When I was in seventh grade, I applied to be one of 32 Pages for the Virginia House of Delegates and was accepted out of hundreds of applications sent in. This seven week job entitled me to miss school and still get all of my school assignments completed because I had to live down in Richmond and wasn't able to go home except on the weekends. Workdays went Monday through Friday, 8:30am to 5:00pm. From 5 to 7 was our free time for us to go back to the Omni Hotel, get into street clothes, and get dinner. Then from 7 to 9 was study hall, which was required so we could get our schoolwork done. We were required to wear a blazer, slacks, dress shirt and shoes, and tie as our uniforms. All Pages were to behave in an adult manner at all times, whether on the hill, out and about in the city, or back at the hotel, for we were representing the integrity of the Page Program. Halfway through the session, I requested that I change roommates because my first roommate and I weren't getting along at all. I was nervous because my first roommate was popular and intimidating, but I used my peer mediation skills that I learned from being a Lanier Peer Mediatior and pleaded my case, in which we were switched and was able to room with another Page, with whom I became good friends. When I was given an errand to do (in session or in the fax and copy room), I sometimes thought, "I don't want to do this!" But realizing that every small errand affected the productivity of the Virginia government, I did what I was told to do and was afterward glad I did it. Also, when I was in the Page Room waiting for an errand to run, I was listening to my iPod, which was not a very smart idea because "listening devices" were prohibited while at work. In almost an instant, I had my iPod taken away and didn't get it back for another three weeks. I learned that I needed to pay the consequences if I didn't follow the rules. This experience in Richmond, which was out of my comfort zone, allowed me to live and work with other teenagers from Virginia, get an inside look at the workings of the state government, start to get a feeling for what the work world will be like when I get out of school, and make right choices in life.