By Robbie Bullis | City of Dewey, Walker County

When I first arrived at the town of Dewey two days ago, I expected a nightmare.

I came into Badger Boys State with an intense fear, terrified to spend my days with new company. I came into this place, left my parents behind for a week and suddenly found myself surrounded by brand new people and sights.

Saturday was oddly underwhelming, consisting mostly of getting settled in. However, as we sat waiting to begin activities, the new arrivals were quick to strike up conversation.

What struck me most was the sheer wit and intelligence of my new acquaintances. That evening though, with several long speeches and some awkwardness settling in, I found myself fumbling through the moments as they passed.

Eventually, as is often prone to happen to me, a sort of depressive apathy crept into the back of my head and I found myself wanting to leave or hide.

After a good nights rest, I awoke to the sound of “We Like to Party,” the song best known from the Six Flags television advertisements. And the tune clung to my psyche for the rest of the day.

Suddenly nothing seemed quite as bad. Waking up and eating breakfast with these strangers filled me with a sense of comradery and I quickly realized just how out of their element they were. We were in the same boat together.

Though our ambitions were on truly different scales, we were experiencing the same new feelings and struggles together. When I heard my fellow citizens humming to the tune of “We Like to Party,” suddenly nobody felt that different.

Hearing boys complain about shower time and struggles with scheduling brought me to the crashing realization that these people were just like me.

Sunday progressed in a much happier light with conversations over Star Wars slowly giving way to conversations of inter-camp politics. Groups formed from the red-lanyard-federalists and the blue-lanyard- nationalists and I couldn’t help but feel a little pang of fear.

After this day of getting to know each other, I worried that these newfound parties would somehow split us or drive us to a place of anger or rudeness. The federalist county caucus passed with little difficulty, and with quite a bit of laughter over the unintentional acronym created by the words “Honesty, Openness, Equality, and Safety”.

Even with all the laughter and the cohesion of the Walker County Federalist Party, I worried that our county was in danger of becoming a separate county.

When Dewey reconvened for our city caucuses, I realized that people still sat by the friends they’d made, not necessarily by the parties they had found themselves in. As both party’s nominees stepped up, I quickly noticed that support wasn’t relegated to their own parties.

I made some close alliances with parts of the Nationalist party, despite the role of Federalist that was placed upon me. Likewise, I also made friends, or ties, within my own party.

When we made our way back to the dorms later that evening, a large group had congregated in the lounge. Discussion quickly turned to the elections, and the majority of Dewey citizens were more than willing to vote outside their party for those acquaintances they had already met.

This bipartisanship was prevalent in almost every single citizen of Dewey, with the basic consensus that the almost identical platforms of the political parties were easily compatible.

The best bet for Dewey’s citizens would be a group effort from both parties.

After only about a day and a half, the citizens of Dewey were already coming together as a unit and the amount of openness and friendliness has only made me more and more comfortable settling in. With the activities of the day calming my fears, I can say with full certainty that the folks in Dewey are some of the best around.

I hope that this comradery and cooperation continues into the following week, and it’s my hope that everybody’s BBS experience is as enlightening as mine has been so far.