Nevada Boys’ State is one of the most amazing, influential, and beneficial roller coaster rides any young man could ever experience. This week has been filled with too many things to recount in 50 pages. The lessons and knowledge I’ve accumulated will forever be with me as a constant reminder of this phenomenal program.
I had this idea or vision of what I thought Boys’ State was going to be like. I had set goals for myself that I wanted to accomplish and I had committed to do whatever it took to achieve them. One of the main things I learned during this week was that your perspective can change in a heartbeat. From the very first minute setting foot into the city of Martie on the second floor of Manzanita Hall at University of Nevada, Reno, my perspective of what was going to take place changed.
Within 30 minutes of arriving 21 teenage guys, who were absolute and complete strangers, were performing an entire Backstreet Boys song along with dance moves. This was just the start of how we would all come together and be more than just kids in a program living with each other for a week, but how we would build a community and end up feeling closer to each other than our friends at home. At the end of the week I looked around at my brothers sitting in a circle at 11:30 PM, crying as we recanted the powerful and moving week that was Boys’ State and realized that the memory and experience I had formulated in 6 very long days would be held near and dear to me for the rest of my life.
I came to Boys’ State to get away from distractions, relationships, family, influences, and problems back home. As I go home, I have resolved to no longer allow these problems to affect me. Our lives our too precious and short to waste dwelling on the past and things we cannot control. I have dedicated myself to the task of running to fix the problems with the leadership skills I’ve learned, instead of running away from them.
We as a city had a theme each day. The first one was setting goals. As leaders we must set goals to give a direction and idea of where we want to go and how we are going to lead not only ourselves but also others into a position to accomplish those goals. Before this program, my idea of what a goal was had been obscured by either the recognition it would give me after I had completed it, or how impossible a task it seemed to be. However, throughout this week, my perspective has been molded. When we set goals, they are for an end product and that end product must not be self recognition. Our pride hinders us from seeing how truly ignorant that idea is. Whether we succeed or fail in accomplishing our goal, the knowledge we take from it is the most important aspect. When we succeed we must recognize that and feel good about ourselves. That sense of accomplishment can be the driving or motivational factor to set higher and bigger goals. Equally, when we do not succeed, we must realize we have not failed. Failure indicates either you put no effort into it, or you receive no benefit from it. When we do not meet the threshold of a goal, we must take time to reflect back and say to ourselves, “Why did I not get to where I wanted to be?” No matter what the outcome we must take something from the experience as a whole.
This week I set goals for myself before I got here. Yet, when I realized the merit of them, I had no interest in them what so ever and they were not going to be beneficial to me in the slightest.
Another theme was perseverance. This theme did not hit home to me until the final night when I was recognized as one of two delegates to be selected to attend Boys Nation. 100 young men will travel with me to the Nation’s Capital and attend a form of Boys’ State but on a national or federal level. Throughout the week I ran for several positions of leadership in the program. I lost two elections for Committee Chairman and Committee Secretary right off the bat. I then proceeded to win the election for District Attorney but only because of my experience in the aspect of law. I then ran for the Federalist parties’ Gubernatorial candidate and I won. I put more hard work into my two positions then I ever could have imagined possible. I pulled extremely late nights and even longer days working on campaigns, signs, briefs, writing, reading, making rap videos, writing newspaper ads, and asking for money. On the night the election results were announced I had assured myself it was in the bag. To my dismay my opponents name was called and he was cheered and celebrated. When I was informed later that I had only lost by two votes between 122 boys, it only infuriated me more. All my hard work was for naught. However, I held my head high. When we broke for athletics, I lay in the grass and just began staring off into the sky. I began asking myself how I had got there. Reflecting, I realized, the memories I was going to take from this were far greater than the title of Governor. From my loss, I took a lesson of respect for my opponent, and that no matter how much you see something happening, your perspective might just be wrong.
Alas, the bitter taste of defeat still firmly rooted in my mouth, my real passion was coming up and I was going to be delivering my moot court case. No matter what happened this week, I knew in my mind I was never going to let a group of inexperienced, rambling, teenage guys show me up in the one thing I knew without a shadow of a doubt, I was the best in. As I delivered my argument with passion and conviction, the thoughts raced through my head that there was no way I wouldn’t be celebrating in a moment’s time. As the ruling of the bench came down in favor of my opposition, again, my heart sank to the bottom of the chest just as it had done the previous night. Anger surged through my veins and I had resigned that I was incoherently a failure. I had lost hope, the willingness to accomplish my goals, and sight of my vision.
As I sat down and took a reflective look on what had just happened, nothing came to me. I, Dan McCready, throughout the course of the week, had been defeated and deflated more than ever before. How could this happen?
As we all sat in AB106 for the closing ceremony, with friends and family all around us, they began announcing special awards. I sank lower into my seat by some force unknown to me. Be it pride or embarrassment, I do not know. Resigned that the program was a waste and I had failed and accomplished none of my goals, I was in an attitude of despair. The words “Boys Nation” flashed on the PowerPoint screen and all my emotions flared back up. My interview had not gone well at all and the other candidates all had high positions in the program and I had nothing more than a losing record. As Jordan and Chad both gave me encouraging looks, I told them both not to bother and get their hopes up because I wasn’t going to win. As they announced the first two alternates, it confirmed my belief because in my mind, they were both better than me. The words hit me like I’ve never had anything strike me before. My face was blank and I could not have formulated a coherent sentence if my life depended on it. As the people around me stood up and cheered, I walked up to the front looking like a deer in headlights. I accepted my award and sat down. As I sat there, staring blankly into space, I began think about how this came to be. How could they have given someone who did horribly in their interview, didn’t win Governor, lost his trial, and didn’t have any significant position at all this award? Something clicked, all of a sudden all, the themes we had been talking about that week jumped out at me and seemed to apply perfectly, I set goals for myself. I achieved some of them, and the ones I didn’t, I learned a great deal from. I had a vision of what I wanted my experience to be like, and overall my vision entailed learning as much as possible, having fun, and applying this great experience. I had to persevere. This was probably the theme I did not actively use but learned how important it is to persevere through your adversities no matter how dim the outcome may be. There is a light at the end of the very dark tunnel.
The final theme for the week embodied all the others and came out to be commitment. Without commitment to pursuing goals, maintaining a vision, and persevering through the thick and thin, we as leaders cannot effectively use them to better ourselves or our followers. I had many ups and downs this past week. But the reality of the matter is I would not change one single moment of this past week. I would give anything to continue the program if just for one more week. The relationships I formed will hopefully last a lifetime, and I know the memories will.
As the word relationship comes into my mind, I begin to think of another word. Inspiration. We watched a video this week detailing a man who had died. In his will he left to about 10 people objects representing how they had changed his life in some way. He also included a letter telling them how they had done so. As each person did not remember the man they believed there must have been a mistake. Yet, as they looked upon their objects and read their letters, they realized they had touched this man and in no way knew it. They had changed his life by either a simple action towards him and some others. They inspired the way he lived his life. The people around me this week inspired me to do great and mountainous things. I begin to think of how I can apply the thing I’ve learned at Boys State to my life back in reality. Whether through a promising and fulfilling relationship, or one strained, decaying, and fleeting, we must capture and embody those who have inspired us. I’ve made an exurbanite amount of mistakes in a past relationship. As a young man, I will swallow my pride, take responsibility for my actions, and work to the best of my ability to restructure that relationship to one of inspiration. I will no longer see it as a failure but as a learning experience of how not to treat those you love and mean something to you. People inspire us to do things we normally would not do. They give us the drive and determination to press on. If we lose that person or their inspiration, we lose our drive and determination. This is when we must take the first step, the first step of many into fulfilling our duty to ourselves and others. We must formulate a mattering community of people and not ostracize ourselves or others.
Finally, to those of you reading this, I will never be able to define, or recapture my experience to you. It is such a powerful and life changing time that you could not possibly understand. But I will do my best to relate what I have learned and better myself and others. As I come to the end of my rambling and wind down, I just want to say thank you to all of you who have touched me and made a difference in my life. You may not know it, but you have. Thank you.
