"Chaos is a friend of mine" -Bob Dylan

What a crazy week I have had!!  I was blessed with so many opportunities this week and now it's time to catch everyone up!

I had the pleasure of visiting the Hattiesburg Kiwanis Club this Tuesday and sharing with them my personal platform as well as advocating for the Miss America Org.  I thoroughly enjoyed spending time talking to the Kiwanis members and answering all of their questions.  They were so kind to invite me and they even gave me my own official Kiwanis coffee mug as a gift.  How did they know how much I love coffee?! A big thank you to Mr. Vance who was kind enough to invite me and his wife who gave him the idea, haha!

Later that afternoon, I joined the Hattiesburg Junior Auxiliary for their “Girl Power” event at the Boys and Girls Club.  There were girls from 7-17 at this event and I was able to share with them my Confidently You message.  I absolutely love working with the Junior Auxiliary and once again they have done a great job empowering girls in our community.  I’m so thankful to be able to be a small part of the work they are doing! 

To finish off the week, I visited Maddox Elementary School in Laurel.  These girls were so amazing and sweet, I could not have asked for a better audience!  One of the hot topics for this group was the importance of being nice.  Several of the girls asked me questions about how to deal with bullying and I shared with them one of my favorite philosophies: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”  This is something that we all have to work on, myself included…no one is perfect and we all say things that we wish we could take back.  However, I believe in the magnitude of small acts of kindness.  Being kind to someone else is sometimes the great self-esteem boost because it makes us feel good about ourselves.  On that note, I have chosen a quote from one of the most inspirational and loving women of all time:
Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing. -Mother Teresa

COMING SOON!  I’m waiting to receive pictures from my conference before I post a new blog…stay tuned!