A brief explanation:
LYS stands for Louisiana Youth Seminar. It consists of a week at LSU campus for students entering 10th-12th grade. Everyone is housed in a dorm room. Delegates are given home groups located in the dorms. The whole delegation meets frequently in the main ball room at LSU throughout the convention. There are also many sessions and contests throughout the week. Each day, a home group gets awards for most spirited, best costume, and best role call cheer. Overall, the convention works to improve students leadership, reach their dreams, think better of themselves, make goals, and make life long friends. All in all it the experience it too great to be put in words.

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All year my sister and her friends have been waiting for this day to come. They had gone the year before and I remember them raving on and on about it.

I stayed up all night packing for the week long experience I had ahead of me. I woke up after two hours of sleep, packed my stuff in the car, and headed to Walgreens to meet my sister's friends who would be riding with us. It was early, and my nerves were covering my excitement. There was brief waffling between the parents while we all got into the car.

We played the best music and everyone was preparing me for the great week ahead, but I had no clue what was in store. We turn onto the campus and I see a girl in a red shirt jumping up and down screaming and chanting. I had no clue what I was getting myself into. We got a little further and there were more people in red shirts and other kids' luggage sitting in the parking lot. We got out the car and Said goodbye to my dad.

I started rolling my huge suitcase towards all the others. My sister and her friends were already greeting their friends from the previous year. I left my suitcase and went to registration.

The convention theme was "Getting connected with Leadership" and the home groups were all different social networks. I was in the youtube group. After I got my t-shirt, bag, room key, and name tag, I went back to my suitcase where a junior councilor helped with my bags. It was then when I realized how much I had packed. We made small talk all the way up to my floor, he told me where my room was and left. I walked all around and couldn't find my room. I eventually came across a girl with another j.c. directing her to her room. I overheard her saying her room number and that's when I realized she was my room mate. I introduced myself and we walked to our room together.

Once we put our bags down in the room, we went down the hall to where all the home group rooms were. There was Rebecca and Michael, people who I was shy around then, but have become such great friends with now, all within one week. We started decorating the room as members of our group came in one by one. Finally, our Councilor and junior councilor walk in. It was the crazy girl who had greeted us when we first arrived. I looked at all the amazing people around me and I could tell that this was going to be something magical.

Once everyone had arrived and we finished decorating our room, we headed off to the ball room. Everyone was singing all these cheers and I had no clue what they were saying. After I learned some of the words, I joined in. Everyone enthusiastically entered the ballroom, as we would numerous other times that week with each, the same excitement and enthusiasm. We did ice breakers with all the delegates and were introduced to the 2013 theme song "Time of my life" by David Cook.
The day was coming to an end, so we sung back to our home group rooms. We planned for our group theme that we would be dressing up for through the week. We finally decided on "United Leadership". We made our first costumes and that was the first of six fun filled late nights we would spend together that week.

We went to breakfast and then, left to the ballroom. It was impossible to escape smiling faces. After some small activities and a little overview of the day, we would go to a general session. After our sessions, we would go to a classroom, with our home groups and eat lunch. We would go to the ballroom for some type of activity, skit, and the announcement of the group who had won that day's spirit award, costume award, and role call chant award, and sing the theme song together. Walks to and from places would be rainy, but that wouldn't faze us, it just gave us something else to chant about. After, we would return to our home group rooms to plan for the next day's activities and make costumes, there we would eat dinner. We would go to our rooms and shower. We ended up going to bed very late and waking up around 6, but it didn't matter, because every second lost in sleep, I would gain a friend like family, and an experience that is unforgettable and life changing.

This became my basic day for the next week. It was not an ordinary week, it was definitely more than extraordinary. We would sing LYS chants throughout the day, meet the most amazing people, and gain self confidence and self worth all while having a lifetime's worth of fun. Over the week, we would share some of the hardest struggle in our life with our home groups. Things even we had never been able to say to our best friends. This is the LYS bubble. No one judges you, everyone strives to be your friend. Even though this sounds completely impossible, it is amazingly true.

We would reconvene in the ball room one night where we would learn if we were a Wiggy or a Tory. These are the two political parties at LYS. We (the Wiggies) went on the other side of the room, to chant against the ratchet Tories. After a brief introduction speech for the councilor head of each party, we left to two classrooms. One with the Wiggies and one with the Tories. We would have people run for offices and the winning officers from each party would run against the other party in an election at the end of convention.

We would have a banquet one night and a dance the next. We would stay up late in our separate, rivaling political parties. You were never too shy to greet someone passing, and you were always eager to make another friend.

The last day was one I will always treasure and keep close to my heart. It was the end of me being with my best friends every day. We went to the classroom we had made all of our skits up in. We shared memories that made us even closer. We were late to the ceremony. No one wanted to leave. All the groups performed and they gave out awards. Everyone gathered around the walls of the ballroom to sing the 2013 LYS theme song for the last time, like we had every night for the past week. Once we finished, we jumped out singing, "badaddu L! badaddu Y! badaddu S!". Then, I found everyone in in my home group. The tears were streaming down our faces. We had formed a bond, we had formed a family. I couldn't bring myself to say goodbye. Some of them would be going to college next year and had already finished their 3-year LYS experience. We were able to depart with great plans of a reunion and seeing each other as often as possible. On the car ride home, I read my letter from everyone in my group. We all wrote letters for each person in our group.

When we all got home, we skyped, oovooed, and texted every night for at least a solid two weeks. I still talk to everyone and I would give anything to get to spend a day with my Youtubes agin.

I am so lucky to have a friendship with all of these people. I see them occasionally and we always pick up right where we left off. I hate to write this because I feel like I'm not giving LYS the credit that it deserves. I have no clue what I would be like today without LYS. I probably wouldn't be District President or involved in student council as much, but more importantly, I wouldn't have amazing friends like I have today. It was truly a life changing, worth wile experience that I will never...never forget and will always cherish close to my heart. I hope I am lucky enough to be a junior councilor one day and eventually become councilor. I love my LYS and I know that one week I spent at LSU's campus, with people who should each have an award for being how they are and who they are, was without a doubt THE best week of my life. I eagerly await July so I can go to my LYS home and reunite with amazing people and meet many more. "LYsS has got soul!"





I will end this with a song I learned at LYS. We would sing it every night. It is the motto of LYS and it is something I hold very close to my heart:
"No Man is an Island" by Joan Baez

No man is an island,
No man stands alone,
Each man's joy is joy to me,
Each man's grief is my own.

We need one another,
So I will defend,
Each man as my brother,
Each man as my friend.....