Palmer Trinity School

connections isn't being the best debater, or the most outspoken, but rather the one most willing to collaborate, because ultimately we don't live in a world made of a single nation with a unitary opinion. We are diverse, collaborative, and united. Palmer Trinity had the chance to represent the country of Gabon, the GreenPeace Organization, and even have a student as a Chair and leader at the event. The Gabonese Republic is a small, francophone country on the western coast of Africa, with little more than two million habitants. If you are anything like me, this country might have easily passed undetected, but after four days of representing this country at the Security Council of THIMUN, I was able to learn a lot more about Gabon, and all other nations in the world. Somewhere along the line, we must have been wired to associate importance and relevance with size, magnanimity, and power. The truth is that those aren't much related at all. Relevance and importance, so far as I see it, are given or at least should be. Small countries, developing countries, the ones we don't know about, barely speak of, are due the importance they've been long neglected. They deserve a voice, an input. In THIMUN we learned that however small, a nation's grievances, ambitions, and values are worth being heard. So, be it in regards to conflicts, like the wars in Ethiopia, or to the sovereignty over Antarctica, we delegates had one job: to represent Gabon and GreenPeace, doing it dutifully, and honoring their importance and voice. Besides the already foreign (and rough) environment of the European winter, with a rough sea breeze, and rain so chilled it felt almost frozen in the air at night, for a whole week, we got the chance to be in contact with not one, but many other international cultures and people. The conference, which took over four days of the trip, wasn't only dedicated to diplomatic procedure and debate, but also opened our doors to the whole world. With more than two hundred global schools, PTS delegates got the chance to meet and keep in touch with other students all over the world. When not at the conference, our chaperones, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Cetta and Mrs. Calleja took us to learn more about the history and culture of the Netherlands. We explored the port area of Scheveningen, and even got a chance to spend a day in Amsterdam. Most interestingly, we got a chance to attend a trial in the International Court of Justice, and to talk to some of the families involved with the Serbian case being addressed. In our free time, though we could have easily opted for being on our phones, as a group we were almost always laughing or talking to each other. Be it from doing spa face masks at the tiny hotel lobby to playing the piano and singing American Pie, or even accidentally locking ourselves out of our rooms, as a delegation, whatever borders we had found between ourselves at school were soon dissolved and gave way to something truly special: care, love, and hope for a better future. 21

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