Week Four

Week Four has begun and there are only six days left now of the dress!

I can’t say I’m not excited to wear pants again…I desperately miss wearing pants.  Way more than I should probably.

That being said, I will miss the freedom that wearing the dress every day has given me…I actually feel like being committed to wear this dress every day has made me care less about how I look because I didn’t have a choice in the matter.  For the last two weeks I’ve pretty much just been wearing the dress with a jacket or with a tshirt thrown over it…nothing fancy, sometimes the brown belt. 

If nothing else, I’m excited that the dress has given me a chance to discuss with people the plight of human trafficking.  It’s a real issue that is present and it is all around us if we would only look for it. 

sorry for getting sappy, I’ve had a rough few days and school’s getting busy with the end of the semester.  I can promise at least one last post (Day 30! Yah yah!) but I will try try to give some type of update similar to the early ones later on this week!  Until then, here’s a picture of the dress from a while ago

it’s actually one of my favorite outfits thus far! 

Day 17 ish and stuff in between!

Sooo last week got busy really fast and I was sick for most of the weekend thus no posts and no pictures..

The good news is that I have started to repeat outfits and I have  a couple of standard ‘go-to’ outfits that happen probably more than once a week haha.  Also, OH HEY WEEK THREE!

This Thursday is the Orange/Purple shirt day for the student body at Centre–they picked up on the one-dress idea and they’re doing the colored shirts for a day for Human Trafficking…it’s not much, but it’s something.  God’s got his hand on it!

Another awesome thing that has happened:

  CentrePeace, the group I spoke to at the end of March about Human Trafficking (I’ve mentioned this probably a thousand times at this point) does a week of action every semester.  Next fall the week of action is going to be centered around and focused on Human Trafficking!  This means a movie, a speaker, and a couple of other events focused solely on informing people about modern day slavery for a full week!  I’m so pumped and I’m stoked that I get to be here for this week of action!

In dress news, one of my friends sprinkled 1970’s cologne on my dress the other day, forcing me to wash it and wear pants in public for a couple of hours…I felt guilty the entire time, it’s crazy.  But the dress was promptly back the next day and is hanging tight (but is growing ever thinner…)!

It was like 50 degrees here today…ouch.

There’s a ton of things I’m leaving out that have happened in the last 5 or so days, but I’ll remember it at some point, I promise!

Days…I lost count. I know today is 12!

Here’s Dress Day 11:

Sorry for the lack of posts and lack of pictures…It’s been a busy week and I have two papers due tomorrow and two tests next week along with several applications for various random stuff.  BUT Here’s a (probably scattered) overview of the last few days!

• First of all, I noticed this morning that the dress is getting increasingly thinner, even though I’ve only washed it a few times (I’m not going to tell you how many until this month is done)!  This is a real problem since I’ve only done two weeks now…oh well, powering through it!
• It has been cold in KY all week…like, highs of 40 and such…this is still a problem when I have one pair of boots and one pair of tights at school.
• I was interviewed for an article in The Cento about Human trafficking at the group CentrePeace which I am now the secretary for for next year! Yah yah, so pumped about this!
• The previously mentioned IFC is picking up on the One Dress Protest for a day or two and will be partnering with me to have an orange/purple shirt day sometime this month to raise awareness for Human Trafficking!
• Umm, not to be sappy and gross, here’s a sweet story:  My boyfriend has been told for the past few months that there is not enough money for him to have an ROTC scholarship at Centre.  He went through all of these interviews and stuff to up his chances, but was still told that it wasn’t going to happen.  I’ve been praying about this and about finances for him and this week prayers were answered and he got the scholarship aka a FULL STINKING RIDE TO CENTRE FOR THE NEXT THREE YEARS.  So cool!  God’s awesome.
• I think most of the girls who began this dress project dropped out…but there is one standing right next to me who is still in it (cough, cough, Audrey…she doesn’t know she’s in this)  and she is doing awesome!

Basically the underlying themes of this week are that God’s awesome and I’m kind of lame and my dress is getting thinner despite the cold of Kentucky spring.

The institution…

The institution of slavery is as old as civilization.  The frequent and brutal wars that were characteristic of early civilizations created the first supply of slaves–the conquered peoples who had their freedom taken away and were forced to labor for the benefit of the victors.  Of course, there were other methods by which individuals could be enslaved such as through kidnapping or piracy.  the common characteristic that is germane to all forms of slavery was that the slaves were put into hard labor to enrich the slave owners.

Easter, Easter! (Day Eight)

Happy Easter!  I’ve had this song stuck in my head all day and I need to share it now before I share anything else!

Beneath the weight of all our sin

You bow to none but Heaven’s will

No Scheme of Hell, No scoffer’s crown

No burden great can hold You down

In strength you reign

Forever let your Church Proclaim

Christ is Risen from the Dead

Trampling over Death by Death

Come awake, come awake!

Come and rise up from the Grave!

Oh, Death, where is your sting?

Oh, Hell, where is your victory?

Oh, Church, come stand in the light!

The glory of God has defeated the night!

Our God is not dead, He’s alive!  He’s alive!

How stinking appropriate for today, right?  Such beautiful imagery, and it’s biblical (1 Corinthians 15:54-58)!  For all you English people out there, you can never say that the Bible is a boring read…it’s got some beautiful poetry and even more beautiful stories!

Here’s Syd, her sister Jordan, and Me this morning at Church!

Two of the most beautiful siblings and girls ever both inside and out!  Especially as far as Syd goes, I can’t tell you of too many people who are running after God as hard as she is.  So, so great and she is such an inspiration and encouragement to me each time we talk!  I promise one day I’ll stop raving about my best friend, but for now it’s not happening, there’s too much love!

Things that happened in the dress today:

• I realized last night when I was talking with Syd (okay, it’s technically a day 7 thing…) that when I am doing the worst in school is when I am farthest from God…hint hint, I’ve been sucking at school lately.  Why is this?  Because I’ve been hiding and I’ve gotten lazy with my quiet times.
• So today when I got back to school, I had a quiet time and then finished like half of Don Juan by Byron for my Romanticism in Lit class…hoorah!
• Good conversations about God, per usual when I do what God asks…when does it start to sink in that doing what God wants you to is always a better option than doing what you want?

The end 🙂  Happy Easter again!  What a beautiful day!

Days Six/Seven

So I have no pictures for Day Six or Seven because I’m not at school and I’m having to do without my official photographer (AKA Nate Adams)…but I assure you you’re not missing out on too much other than a scarf I made out of old t-shirts that is kind of cool.

Aaanyway, here are cool things that happened!

• Syd, my previously mentioned best friend, gave me a button that says “One Dress/ One Shirt, One Month, One Life” on it that our preacher’s wife made and I’m making them for the girls doing this at Centre!
• I colored eggs with a bunch of my friends yesterday and didn’t ruin my dress!
• My wonderful Mom took my dress in some more so it now fits again!  Yah Yah!
• I got to meet with most of my Campaigners’ group from high school YL and it was awesome!
• Tomorrow’s easter and I still don’t know what I’m wearing with the Dress…
• I blogged about Bob Goff’s new house for Trafficked Girls in Uganda, not thinking that Sydney is going there this summer.  She texted me that night and said that she had been praying for a girls home to visit while in Uganda and that this was an answered prayer!  God’s using the Dress project to unite even the closest of friends and to use us for His Glory!

I don’t have a ton to mention about these two days other than that I’m super sleepy and the last two days have been awesome!

Also, how cool is it that we worship a God who literally defeated death?  We talked about this a lot this week in my Christ and Christology class and while the class always gives my brain a good workout and honestly helps me to understand my faith more by questioning it, this week was especially helpful and I can’t believe I didn’t think to mention it before now!  More on this later when I’m not falling asleep!

Day Five

Dress Day Five!

It was all of 50 degrees outside for most of the day today…and since I’m lacking in winter clothes at this point, getting dressed for warmth in a dress that has no sleeves was a bit of a struggle.  So the day began a in a little bit of a questionable manner…

THINGS THAT HAPPENED!

• Rolled out of bed at 7:50 for my 8 am lab to find that it was 43 degrees outside…proceeded to wear Yoga pants under my dress along with white socks and bean boots and a sweatshirt.  Safe to say I looked ridiculous.
• After lab, I fixed the wardrobe issue with the only almost-long-sleeved shirt I have at school…the resulting outfit was still a little questionable, clearly.

Not a whole lot dress-wise happened today.  I had some personal struggles, but God is faithful and he took care of me even when I was in panic-mode which is always so fun to see.

Other than all of this, I’m so pumped to go home to visit my best friend of thirteen years (or something ridiculous like that), Syd, who actually introduced me to the One Dress Protest!  Don’t worry, there will be pictures…I know y’all were concerned!  There’s a click-through link to her blog..shes much more insightful than me!

 

So Cool

The Uganda Restore International New Home for Trafficked Girls!

Day Four

Here was the dress day Four!

Things that happened Day Four:

• It rained everywhere, hence my disheveled appearance…
• In fact, later that night, I successfully climbed into a fountain on campus just for fun because I was already drenched and it was on the bucket list….Unfortunately, the dress suffered and came out of the fountain even wetter than it was when I went in.
• I literally almost peed my pants laughing at myself earlier in the day…this might be TMI for you, but IF it had happened it would’ve been really really notable and I wouldn’t want to deprive you of any hilarious misadventures, either!
• It is official that I’m going to speak to the IFC next week about partnering with the Greek community on campus (Roughly 60% of the student body) to host a couple of days wearing the same orange or purple shirt (remember, for justice or freedom) and to donate to the Bluegrass Rape Crisis Center!  This will really bring the issue of Human Trafficking to the forefront of students’ minds and it could be so awesome!  God works in really cool ways and this is definitely one of them..getting a huge amount of the student body involved in this will be so cool if we can make it happen.  

That being said, I’m enjoying day five thus far.  Look out for that post soon, my friends 🙂

Day Three

I forgot to take a picture yesterday (oops!) but I assure you I wasn’t wearing anything too interesting…the same brown belt made an appearance.  It’s looking like that one’s going to be a staple, so we should just get used to it!

Because I didn’t take a picture, here’s a picture from my back yard last week!

Things from Day Three:

• A friend of mine who is a delegate on the IFC (Interfraternal Council…I think…)  contacted me about possibly partnering with the another group on campus to do a type of “Awareness  Week” (or 3-4 days) about Human Trafficking!  They asked if I’d like to come speak at their next meeting to see about making this happen!
• I’ve seen more girls on campus wearing the same dress a few days in a row now, some of whom I didn’t even know were participating!
• I got to explain the dress concept another few times yesterday and I loved it, even if some of the people didn’t really seem to get it
• I washed the dress yesterday and it came out alive!  And it is still so, so soft!

In addition to all of this, I’ll leave you all with a beautiful line from a song that’s been stuck in my head all week:

We Cry Mercy (In the name of the Father Most Holy)

We Cry Mercy (In the name of the Son who was slain)

We Cry Mercy (In the name of the Spirit Indwelling)

Tender Mercy, Lord.

The whole point of this month is to give a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves.  This is a prayer for them.

PS:  If anyone wants to donate to a local organization working with Trafficking Victims, here’s a link to the Bluegrass Rape Crisis Center.