Heartless, Selfish College Students? I Think Not.

Hello!

For those of you who do not know me, I am Elise. You may think of me as Michelle's sweet, innocent, adoring baby sister...who tends to be a little messy, and make less than perfect decisions. If you only knew the abuse I have endured at the hand of my older sisters, (being paid pennies to drink pickle juice or being rolled up like a burrito in blankets until I could not breathe, a "fun game" as my sisters would refer to it) you would understand why I am the way I am...mind you this was before I towered over the both of them.

Bear with me, I'm going to try my very best but I have never blogged before.

This fall, I began my freshman year at the University of Kentucky. The campus is beautiful and I hear the basketball team is pretty good, though I am the rare student on campus that adores the William T. Young library more than I adore Coach Cal. As I was anxiously searching my brain for a topic to blog about I started to think about the rep that college students get as being selfish, impatient, rude, and self serving. Though this is very true in some cases, I for one can atest that I have not begun to thank my parents enough for working their tails off and sending me to to this amazing school, 5 hours away from home..now that I read that over I'm thinking maybe they've gotten more out of it than I first realized. But really, I'll have you know that we are not all party animals who care about nothing more than cheap beer and our social calendars. I introduce to you, DanceBlue.

On my life list currently is the ever so vague "put others first". Now let me explain how I plan to do that this year. First of all, the week I came to UK we watched some sort of promotional video for danceblue that made me tear up. Tearing up for me is not exactly a rare occurance, this is a trait I share with my sister Michelle, but the emotion this video portrayed made me tear up a little more than the everyday Romantic Comedy. I was moved. I knew that day that I wanted to participate in one of the two largest events on campus, DanceBlue. What is it? a 24 hour, no sit, no sleep dance marathon that raises money for the pediatric oncology clinic on UK's campus. Each dancer raises three hundred dollars to participate. Yes, we pay three hundred dollars to dance for 24 hours..straight. Why would I do this you may ask? Because I can, and I'll do it with a smile on my face for 24 hours for those who can't.

My first attempt at fundraising was the UK vs. Florida football game. One of my older sorority sisters handed me a can and instructed me to politely badger people to fill it. Now if you knew me this would be humorous because I am not the type to be extremely outgoing, especially when it comes to outright asking people for money. I took a deep breath, smiled awkwardly and hoped to God that drunk people would stumble by and their money would just happen to jump into my can. I grew a little more comfortable and actually started speaking instead of standing there looking like a mute with a can.

This past year, with the help of 500 dancers and countless donors, DanceBlue raised $600,888.82. Not including the fundraising that has already occured this year, DanceBlue has raised over $1,300,000 since its inception in 2005. SO, the point that has taken me 4 paragraphs to prove is this: It is not the basketball team that is ranked 5th in the nation nor is it the gorgeous library that makes me proud to be one of those "selfish and lazy college students" at the University of Kentucky. It is that number, along with the devotion, compassion, hard work and selflessness that has made it possible. So wish me luck March 5-6, as I will be dancing my behind off, raising money for Delta Zeta's adopted family, which inclues a sweet little 6 year old fighter named Leah. I will not sit or sleep and it will most definately be the most rewarding experience I have yet to experience.

Peace and love,
Elise

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http://twitter.com/ukDanceBlue