Hey everyone! Sorry about the brief hiatus; finals and papers have got me bogged down like never before. Just one more week!

OPEN finished up our semester with a lovely holiday party. We’ve been collaborating with several other clubs and events, including CureFest— a flea market type event with artists and vendors from the area, with a portion of the proceeds went toCentral Massachusetts Health Awareness Services in honor of World AIDS Day. We also worked with VOX (student advocates for Planned Parenthood) at their annual Sex Fest—a FUNdraiser promoting sexual health and awareness (we had a “Pin the Gender/Bender on the Person” game table!).

I feel really good about this semester. It’s been an eventful one for OPEN, and a monumental one for me.I can’t help but feel like the tireless hours I’ve put toward the organization have helped us bring about some majorly successful events. The intimate relationships I’ve worked to create and maintain with the members have been a great source of joy, and my Executive Board and I have become very close friends. I’ve learned a lot about what are realistic goals, what are not, and why realizeability shouldn’t always be my main concern (a queer’s gotta have dreams, ya dig?). It feels really good to look back on four months with great events and member turnout and think, “Wow, I helped make that.”

I guess that might sound a bit cocky, but it really has been an eye-opening experience for me—about what I can do, and more importantly, about what we can do. I’m so excited for next semester, and I’m currently working on getting plans together for new events and budgeting options. One of our main goals next semester is engendering a more trans-friendly campus (ba-dum-cha!), but I don’t want to forget the rest of the letters in the queer alphabet soup. Any advice or suggestions out there? I’m already in the process of gathering contact information for other Worcester area colleges in order to have some sort of consortium social, and I’m really hoping to broaden OPEN’s networking. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes. :)

As I brainstorm and talk to OPEN members one-on-one, I’ll have more to report on back here. I’m looking forward to any input!