Dear Texas Bluebonnet Girls State (TBGS),

Consider this my official love letter to you. Starting off I couldn’t be more grateful to KHS for giving me this amazing opportunity and Texas Bluebonnet Girls State (TBGS) for shaping me into the person I’m becoming. There are so many things that I experienced in the span of my week there that you can only understand if you attended Girls State at some point in your life. I truly believe that some Divine intervention happened for me to have had the opportunity to attend Girls State because I had never heard of it before nor did I go looking for the opportunity.

I don’t think giving a summary of my time there or itinerary of activities that we did will truly help convey the magic that is TBGS, but I do wanna share some things that I took away from this program. The first being that you can always do better. Every girl you meet at this program is being sent there by their own prospective schools, meaning that they are there for a reason. Within 5 minutes of meeting fellow citizens I was conversing with merit scholars, nonprofit founders, and National qualifiers in various organizations. However smart, talented, or impressive you think you are, there are 200 girls that can outperform you. I didn’t view this as a negative thing though because never in my life have I had the opportunity to be surrounded by such incredible, ambitious, girls, or as 2023 TBGS lieutenant governor, Girls Nation alternate and amazing friend, Sofia Esteban says “smart hot women”. I truly can’t articulate how inspiring knowing that is.

This leads me to another thing I had to learn, viewing others as inspiration instead of being envious. Given that there were so many amazing women at Girls State, I felt a sense of imposter syndrome and envied the accomplishments of other women. However, it’s so much more productive to be inspired by someone than insecure or jealous. When I would hear about the amazing things other girls were doing in their own communities, it inspired me , knowing that I was capable of amazing things too. It showed me how many more ways I could grow. How many different paths I could carve for myself. And how many levels of success that almost felt comical to imagine we’re actually very possible.

My time at Girl stay also re-instilled my belief about the insurmountable value of female friendships. There are few relationships more important than the ones you form with your girlfriends, the unspoken bond I have now have with any girl who attended Girl State is so special. I parallel this experience to being a part of a sorority, where you’re bonded for life and no matter where you go or what you do you are forever connected. 

Although I desperately want to go back and relive it all, we have a saying that “you only girls state once”. Which couldn’t be more true, I know you can ask any citizen, and they will tell you that it is truly a once in a lifetime experience, and there’s nothing like it. We joke that it’s almost like a cult and I can confirm it is very cult-like , but is one that I will gladly drink the Kool-Aid forever. 

Best Regards,

Sydney Switzer