Youth Tour MANIA

Yes I do realize that yet again, this is a late blog post. I thought I would be able to blog while I was on my trip to Washington DC; however, I soon found out that wifi in DC costs about thirty bucks a night...Soooo, no blogging for me while I was on my trip.

All the MO Youth Tour Delegates

Youth Tour (the name of my trip) was single-handedly the best experience of my life. I made the best friends of my life, met some of the most intelligent and impressive students from across the country, and had so many opportunities to show my American Spirit. The best part was when we got to go to the St.Louis Cardinals v. the Washington Nationals game in DC. Many of the Youth Tour delegates from MO have been to home STL Cardinal games, but never away games--especially as far away as Washington DC. The brief story of the Cardinal game goes as follows:

There we were 90 Cardinal fans from Missouri amidst a crowd of 20,000 National fans. We sat and watched the game half-heartedly for a while; however, after the Cards were getting a beating from the Nationals in the 6^th inning, our Youth Tour group decided we had to do something about it. So, in an effort to cheer up our favorite team, we all stood up together and screamed at the top of our lungs, “GO CARDS GO! GO CARDS GO!”  for the next hour and a half till the game was over. However, the National fans didn’t like our spirit too much. After about 10 minutes of Cardinal cheering they started booing us, 20,000 National fans booed us. Despite the dirty looks, hand gestures, and comments from the drunken National fans, we, the sober high-schoolers from Missouri, stuck to our guns and cheered for our team even when they lost the game. We even made TV 6 times and the star player for the Cardinals, Albert Pujols, mentioned our group in an interview afterword. Almost half of us lost our voices from screaming so much. But we didn't care, we were so excited about cheering that it didn't matter how bad we sounded, or how bad the Cards lost, we were just thrilled to be on such an amazing trip and see our favorite baseball team.

                 After the game there was not one long face in the crowd. The Nationals were glad they won, and the Cards fans were so enthused about cheering during the game, we were just happy that they didn’t get beaten too badly. We were all hyped up from cheering for the cards that we decided to try to get everyone in the audience to join us in a cheer. The only thing that could unite every person together in the audience was not baseball but the love of our country.  Now, how could that happen? Our group started screaming the cheer “USA USA USA” and the entire stadium was filled with Patriotism and everyone joined in. It was a moment that sent goose bumps up and down my arms as everyone joined together because of the love of our country.

Me Introducing myself as MO's rep

I felt like the Cardinal game was the main highlight of the trip. That, and that I was chosen out of all the Youth Tour delegates from MO to be the only student representative for the Missouri Electric Cooperatives. I get the privilege of writing a speech and delivering it to a group of people and judges in DC in July--another all-expense paid trip. Then, if I am chosen out of the 42 states' representatives there, I can be the National Spokesperson for the NRECA (National Rural Electric Association) and I get to deliver that same speech in front of 7,000-8,000 people in San Diego in March of 2012. All of the state's reps have to go to the National Convention in March, but only one will be picked to be the national spokesperson. I would love to be the national spokesperson, and if I do say so myself, my speech is pretty darn amazing. *crossing my fingers*

Me and friends jumping at the Air Force Memorial!

Besides the Cardinal game, we got to go to the Smithsonian Museums, Arlington National Cemetery, all the monuments and memorials, Ford's theater, the Hard Rock Cafe, and I got TONS of souvenirs.The Newseum was TOTALLY the best part, I loved it so much. Especially the quotes etched into the walls about Freedom of Speech. You should totally go and see it! I'm ready to go back! It was such an amazing experience!

Thanks so much NRECA, Laclede Electric, and Mike Marsh for organizing and funding such an amazing experience! And photo credit for some of these photos to my new best journalism buddy Kyle Spradley!

And that was Lindsey's thought of the day, where Lindsey shares an Everyday Thought.