‘It was a great day’: 7th grader shares what it was like being NH governor

“It was a great day, and I cannot describe it to you in more detail,” said Andrew Flockton, New Hampshire’s governor for a day.

Andrew, 12, who is a student at Milford Middle School, was joined by Gov. Chris Sununu on Wednesday as he participated in an executive council meeting and questioned lawmakers on different spending items, according to WMUR-9. 

He said his most favorite thing about the New Hampshire State House was looking at all the Civil War-era murals. 

Andrew’s father Bill Flockton said his son was ready to take on the day and wasn’t nervous at all. 

“We got his clothes ready the night before and got his little suit ready. And his shirt and his shoes. So it kind of I think it went smoothly in the morning,” he said. 

Andrew rated his nervousness at a “two or three.”

Bill, who said he was a proud father, called his son very self-motivated. In fact, he said it was Andrew who had first heard about the contest and expressed his interest to participate in it. 

“He had just published a very, very short story in a publication, and so he’s always out there trying to self promote himself,” Bill said. 

While Andrew has a lot of ambition that his father helps him “balance,” a cause that is close to his heart is changing the state flag. In fact, he designed a website that advocates for changing the flag to include the Old Man of the Mountain on it.

And why exactly does Andrew want to change the state flag?

“Well, it’s because I think the state flag looks like probably half the country’s flags. And it has a ship that wasn’t even built here,” he told the Granite Post Thursday. “And it was captured by the British and used against us. I don’t think that’s a good symbol to represent New Hampshire.”

Bill added that until last year he could joke around with Andrew, but this year had been one of tremendous growth for his son.

“This year, he’s got so many facts bottled up in his head … He’s like a mini expert on flags around the world and in the United States,” he said. “So it’s kind of overwhelming. I mean, to see how much he’s progressed in just a year.

Andrew has also spoken at local town meetings about education rights for students with special needs, and is active in his school’s newspaper club, Bill said. 

With so many activities absorbing Andrew’s time, Bill has to sometimes remind his son that life cannot be all work and no play.

“He gets overactive in some of these,” he said. “I gotta tell him, ‘OK, let’s put some of the stuff away and just go have fun.’”