Meeting Governor Tina Kotek

One of my wishes as Kid Governor was to meet the actual Governor of Oregon, and in late September my wish came true! It was an experience that I will never forget.

We left for the Oregon State library (we were meeting there) early in the morning and arrived there in around an hour. We arrived on time, but the real challenge was finding parking. All the parking spots were taken for blocks around. When we finally found one, we realized that we would have to walk all the way there in the cold, morning air. We shivered along. When we were walking to the library, we saw Governor Kotek getting out of her car. After that we literally started running so that she would not have to wait for us. I was in a dress and by the time I got to the building my legs were practically frozen.

We entered the library through a side entrance. The room we entered through was quite plain and drab, but as we went to the main rooms it got a lot more grand. We rode up in an elevator and got out on the 3rd floor. When we got out, I was relieved to see that the governor had not arrived yet. We met the governor’s assistants. They were both so nice and made me feel very welcome. We spoke a little bit and sat down. Soon after, the governor entered.

When the governor entered I was in awe. In my 9 months of being a Kid Governor I had not met the governor once. So you can imagine how excited I was to finally meet her. One of the first things I noticed was that she brought her dog. Her dog (Teddy) was so cute!

Kid Governor Zoya and Governor Kotek sit in chairs talking to each other. Governor Kotek has a dog in her lap.

We spoke about my platform and what she was doing to help raise mental health awareness in kids. She is also very passionate about my platform! She made me feel very comfortable and important. Even though she holds such a high office and has so much power she has no airs about her. She is a very down to earth person. We sat down and I began interviewing her. Once we finished all the questions I had prepared, she asked me a few things about myself, such as my hobbies and about school.

After we finished talking, one of her staff suggested that we make a video together to raise mental health awareness. We both thought that this was a great idea. We were going to film the video at her desk. Her desk was a rich brown color and large. The chair was comfy, and padded with black leather. I wondered what it would be like to work on that desk and how it would feel to sit in that chair. As I was wondering, I heard Gov. Kotek say aloud, “Zoya, would you like to sit in my chair?” It was almost like she read my mind! I felt so honored to sit in that chair.

Kid Governor Zoya sits in Governor Kotek's chair.

Governor Kotek and I were given a format to follow and we had a few minutes to come up with the things we were going to say.

It is a lot harder to shoot an impromptu video than you might think. You have to remember what you are going to say, and then you have to actually say it. It was a little bit nerve racking, doing the video with the actual governor, but she was very nice to me whenever I messed up. When we finally got it right, I was pretty impressed by how much we’d done in 10 minutes.

As I was heading out of the governor’s office she gave me something. It was a governor pen! Apparently she gave them to people after they signed bills. I felt very important to receive one. Outside of the office there was a small bowl of York candies. Since she was born in York, Pennsylvania, they are one of her favorite candies. She asked me to take one and I happily obliged.

Once we left, I didn’t even mind the cold because my mind was too busy thinking about the meeting. In the car on the way to school all I could think about was the great experience I had just had.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *