Studying, Studying, Studying... and More Studying.

Once I was accepted to the Legislative Page Program, I had a lot of work to do; applying was the easy part. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, there are 107 Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. To be prepared to serve in the Legislative Chamber, a Legislative Page needs to have memorized the faces, names, Ridings and seats of the MPPs, as well as the names and faces of the Clerks, the Lieutenant Governor, and the Sergeant-at-Arms.
That is not a very simple task.
In the mail, I received *most* of my study materials that I needed to memorize (Pictured right); the remaining study materials were given to me on my orientation, which I had last Friday.

As well as the people in the Parliament, I also needed to memorize how to deliver the 4 Key Documents- Reports by Committees, Bills, Motions and Petitions.

Quite frankly, I found and am finding memorizing the MPPs is and was a lot more difficult task.

I found it really overwhelming to study them all; how was I going to do it?

When I first got accepted to the Page Program, a friend of mine told me that a boy at her school had already been accepted to the page program; So, I called him up and asked him for tips on studying.

Using what my friend's friend told me, I began to study; I cut up the cue cards that came in the mail, and I folded the names backwards so I just had the MPP's face too look at. Then I would read the name and riding a few times, and find their place on the seating chart. In my head, I would repeat that person's name and riding over and over and over and over and over again, until it was memorized.
Once I memorized a new person, I would put them at the back of my stack of memorized people and go through the pile, naming each person based on their face. This helped me refresh my memory.

I studied for several weeks, memorizing MPPs from all three of the Political Parties.

And then, one email sent everything crumbling down. On October 16th 2012, Dalton McGuinty, leader of the Liberal Party and the Premier of Ontario resigned. He prorogued the Legislature, and canceled my term of duty.