We The People Bio - Jessica Swenson

Taking state was not a defining moment of my life. Memorable, definitely. But it was not this wholly crucial moment that I will look back on and say, “Wow! My life really changed there!”

I realized this as my unit joined hands when the announcer began telling us who’d won the individual units. Here we were, four kids who hadn’t really known each other at the beginning of the year. And now we were closer than spandex on a volleyball player, laughing together and working together like we’d been friends our whole lives. And when we took it, when we were announced the best Unit 4 in the state, all we could do was look at each other and grin. We are more than friends. We're a family.

A family part of a larger team. When the audience was told that the difference between second and first place was three measly points, our hand-holding spread to include the rest of the table. And when we took state, there was no other group of people in the world that I wanted to be on that stage with.

When I think of We the People, I don’t think of me. I think of us. In this program, I’ve found that amazement that comes from being just a part of the whole. It is all of our efforts, not just mine, that have earned us this trip to Washington D.C. for Nationals. It was so hard for me to not be wholly in control of my fate, but the trust I’ve given and the unity I’ve felt has been worth everything.

Though this program has greatly changed my course in life and shown me new interests, I find that my individual story, in the end, doesn’t really matter. What does matter are the stories of my unit and the stories of the team. The stories of twenty-nine high school students coming together to not only study the Constitution, but become passionate about it. It’s Gestalt psychology: “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts,” and that right there is what is important.

The State We the People competition was not a defining moment because it was just the culmination point. The hours working and learning, the inside jokes, and the fleeting seconds where I could actually feel my unit grow together are my significant moments. Those are the times I will look back on and say, “Wow. My life really changed there.”

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. - Marianne Williamson