“Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.”

Good grief I'm tired. It's been a long semester. I'm sad to leave everyone, but really excited to graduate.

I think most of you know I've spent the past few months collecting prom dresses for Operation Prom Dress. We ended up with over 300 dresses. Last Saturday was our giveaway. We got Doster all ready, organized the dresses, and prepared.

Ten people showed up.

Yep, that's right. Of the 300 dresses we have, we gave away 12. It was disappointing, to say the least. I've spent a lot of time getting the dresses, getting them to the cleaners, making sure all of the high schools knew about it, and just hoping for the best. But it just didn't happen.

It's hard to get stuff done when you don't have a full team of people totally dedicated to the task at hand. I am admittedly over-committed and with my uncle dying and still dealing with Marika's death, I can't honestly say I'm totally here. I'm stressed, exhausted, and completely overwhelmed. So as President, I can't say I've been 100%.

I was definitely upset that things did not go as planned, but then I decided there had to be a way to get these dresses to people in need. I called around, got on the FB garage sale group, and eventually made my way to freecycle. I got to interact directly with the people in need. I met some people one night after class to give them a dress for their sister, I met 5 or 6 people today to get dresses for themselves and their friends, and I went to Bryant High School and met the most adorable girl who was ecstatic to have beautiful options for prom. I am happy to have gotten the opportunity to meet these people. I also got in touch with Wings of Grace, the Forest Lake Baptist Church relief center, who were overjoyed to receive dresses. I met a woman in charge of caring for homeless people and their children. I got to help her pick and choose dresses appropriate for teenagers because she had no idea, "what the children wear." And finally, I am able to help the YWCA offer so many more dresses at their giveaway in Birmingham this Saturday.

It's amazing how you can turn a failure into something positive. I was happy to take on the task of giving the dresses away after our giveaway did not go as planned. It gave me the best opportunity to meet new people and help the community in so many different ways.

And now it's time to look ahead. I have to make a bajillion record bowls for our Good Art show (April 17th, 4-6 pm in Nott Hall! Be there) and I need to make sure Tee Time is actually going to go off without a hitch (April 10th, 7:30, $5, front lawn of Doster! Be there!). But for now, I have to make sure I don't fail my marketing exam and that I actually finish my online entrepreneurship class.

Oy. Is it May yet?