North Georgia Cottage

The lovely ladies of the Chi chapter of Gamma Sigma Sigma Sorority at the University of Georgia are holding a fundraiser & collecting donated goods (clothing, magazines, toys for children, etc) to benefit the North Georgia Cottage, a sexual assault and children's advocacy center. The Cottage provides intervention, advocacy, referrals, and support for survivors and families impacted by child abuse and sexual assault. The Cottage also raises awareness and provides prevention education about these issues.For information on how you can donate or volunteer, please check out their website www.northgeorgiacottage.org
Thank you for your time!

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=1313f8f9b2359248&mt=application/pdf&url=https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui%3D2%26ik%3D4b41744054%26view%3Datt%26th%3D1313f8f9b2359248%26attid%3D0.1%26disp%3Dsafe%26realattid%3Df_gqa285ds0%26zw&sig=AHIEtbRREhPg2Rf-PHNagn-uZpUinXJvSg

Hmmmm...

It's weird having a blog again.
I kept a blog pretty regularly during that year when I was being bullied...One of my "friends", who eventually ended up being one of my bullies, wanted me to keep a blog so that she could keep up with what was going on with me while I traveled (back home to georgia, alabama, overseas, etc). So most of the posts were written in the form of letters to her. I'm not really sure how to write a blog without a specific audience in mind...hence the reason why my first post was a letter to lady gaga.
Let's see....
I'm at work now...off the clock though. We just updated our operating systems to the newest version of Adobe Creative Suite, so sometimes I stay after to make letters for my BFF's. It sounds weird that I would say BFF's as a plural because normally "best" implies only one, but I guess I'm really sensitive to people being left out, so that's why I expanded it. I'm sure they wouldn't care if I mentioned them in their blog, but just incase, I'm just gonna use their first initial. B has been my friend the longest. We lived in the same dorm freshman year of college. We got in a fight towards the end of undergrad b/c she was anti-greek and didn't like that I was getting so involved with my sorority...but when the sorority started to turn on me, she took me back w/o even an "i told you so"...I'm so lucky to have her as a friend. E is my London BFF. I met her my first night ever being in the UK. We both lived in the same dorm, Commonwealth Hall, and during King's College's mixer night, she "wanted to meet the American because her family loved vacationing in Tahoe". And we've been friends ever since lol She's really sweet & studied abroad this year in France, so it's been fun sending loads of postcards back and both. C is kind of an interesting "BFF". In high school we dated, but we realized (read: I realized) it was kinda more like a sister & brother thing, so our relationship got changed to "friend status". He's really cool though. When those girls were bullying  me, he'd stay up on the phone with me until I feel asleep & on numerous occassions offered to (joking...I think...I hope) drive down to San Diego with his baseball bat ;) And then there's M...we're not really "friends". More like "cousins" because our Mom's are BFF's...but I usually include her in the BFF category anyway because we're technically like second genration BFF's. And then S & J are my grad school BFF's & M (not to be confused with the san diego M) and E are my UGA BFF's...and yep...I mean I have other friends too, but those are the people who I can pretty much tell anything too.
 I work as a graphic designer at a local magazine...well intern. I wasn't able to get a real job this summer because I had to take two sessions of summer school, so an unpaying internship was all I could do. It's really hands-on. I've produced the next issue of the magazine pretty much all by myself. It will be awesome when it comes to job interviews because instead of having a portfolio with a few ads saved, I can literally just take in the whole magazine issue and be like, "I did this! All of it!"...so I guess that makes up for how hard the bosses are on me. Normally during the school year there are three graphic designers who split shifts. But this summer, they decided just to hire me and have me do all of it. So I've been working full-time all summer...and in addition to summer school, it's made for some stressful few months. However, this upcoming fall, instead of having three graphic designers, it'll be me as the supervisor with two assistants. So eventually the perks will outweight the pain...I guess.
And I better go. My friend is putting together a lady gaga fan video for one of her new songs "Electric Chapel" (her most recent CD is really good...a lot of people probably don't get it, but I was an English Lit major so symbolism was my life...The rest of the world sees a coat made out of Kermit the frogs & I see a protest against fur, for example)
And I need to get working on B's birthday present. Her birthday is coming up the middle of August, so I'm using adobe illustrator and photoshop to make her a really cool card :)

My Letter

Dear Mommy Monster (aka @ladygaga),

   I’m not really sure how to start this letter as I’ve never really written anything like this before, so I apologize in advance if you hate it.

 I guess I should probably start by telling you a little about myself? My name is Kelsey (twitter handle @xGagasAngelx), and I’m 23 years-old.  I’ve been a fan of your music since the beginning. I was in my study abroad year in London when “The Fame” first came out, and I remember my friends and I jumping up and down and screaming every time they played “Just Dance” at our favorite night club. However, I didn’t become a “verified lil monster” until a bit later during a really difficult time of cyberbullying. That’s actually why I’m writing, to thank you for being an inspiration to me and giving me strength during that time.

   The summer before my last year of my undergraduate degree (August of 2009), my grandpa passed away. When school started that Fall, I was still going through the grieving process and not exactly in a good place. Rather than support me, however, a few of my sorority sisters started spreading rumors that I wasn’t  grieving, but just being an attention whore. The cyberbullying started with just a few Facebook messages but eventually escalated to the point where I was constantly bombarded by texts and emails from those same sorority sisters telling me how much they hated me and how they wanted me to kill myself. I’m the shy, quiet type and had joined the sorority as a way to make friends at the large university, so when I started getting those mean messages, I felt really alone. I refused  to get out of bed, stopped eating, and would spend all day crying and wondering what was wrong with me. I ended up moving back home to Georgia hoping that once I moved across the country, the messages would finally stop. But they didn’t. After changing my cell number three times, my email twice, and setting super strict security settings on my Facebook page, every once and a while, they were still able to get the hurtful messages through. I was surviving, but still felt like there was something wrong with me or that I needed to change myself to make things better. It was also frustrating that everyone else in my life assumed that once I moved back home, I would immediately forget everything. They didn’t understand why, months later, it was still hurting me, and kept telling me I was crazy.

           This is where you come in J In the beginning of March, after getting a particularly hurtful message, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to keep living. That’s when my mom sat me down and played “Born This Way” for me. She made me listen closely to the lyrics and then told me all about how you had been bullied too. This sounds kind of crazy, but I think that’s when it first sunk in that I wasn’t alone in the way I was feeling. She also told me about how you have said that bullying is something that affects you your whole life and how the emotional scars don’t just go away. That was a huge relief as well. I was tired of having people ask me, “Why can’t you just get over it already!?!”, and it was nice to know that someone, even someone who I technically don’t know, understood.

           Ever since that day, I’m proud to be a little monster. Whenever I’m having a bad day or a particularly weak moment, listening to your song lyrics always reminds me to be strong and to keep fighting. It’s also inspiring that you have achieved such a successful career. Thinking of that reminds me that just because I was bullied in the past, it doesn’t mean my life will always be that way, and that maybe someday I will accomplish great things too.

Thank you so much Mommy Monster! You are truly my idol and have helped me more than you will ever know! ily <3 

-Kelsey