My First MUN Conference- Mistakes Lead to Success by Elif KAYA

I wanted to write this so that I can, if possible, inspire some of you to become a MUNer and help first-timers overcome their fears and anxiety. Also,  I truly think that you will learn a lot from my story. Besides that, who wouldn’t want to read about a struggled first-timers pathetic but also funny story about her first mun experience?

Before my first conference; I was anxious and tired of researching and I did my best not to get sidetracked by my fear. I was scared to be judged or to be humiliated.  I was not in our MUN club so I knew nothing about procedures, position papers, and other relevant stuff but writers from munturkey.com have helped me a lot through this learning process. Anyways, the real story starts on April 11th. In that day, I attended my first Model United Nations conference, TBSMUN in Warshaw, Poland.

Firstly, we had the General Assembly in Uniwersytet SWPS. Everyone seemed so professional, old and experienced and I was the creepy first-timer who avoided talking so that she would not make any mistakes, standing in the corner. Unfortunately, I was in a position where I needed to talk most in the committee because my country was involved in that issue a lot more than other countries. So I made up my mind and started talking. The debating part went as if I had no idea what’s going on, it was not because I knew nothing but some of the experienced-delegates knew everything. However, I was not judged or humiliated because it was normal for a first-timer to have trouble debating or writing a proper resolution. And my committee, including my chairs, were considerate and helped me a lot. That’s when I realized that experience was really important but being lack of it was clearly not an obstacle. I understood that experience was the key to success in MUN but to do so I needed to make mistakes and learn from them.

Even though I regretted at first,  in the end, there was a big difference in comparison of before and after. I got out of my comfort zone and improved my confidence and debating skills which I am willing to improve more and more with attending other conferences.

In conclusion, it should be apparent that with all the mistakes I’ve done, this was not a failure. If you have never gone to a MUN conference, you should try it out, learn new things and have some fun. With all the mistakes that you’re possibly going to do, your first conference will not be a shame or a failure. It is normal to make mistakes, it is what makes us human.