on moving forward?

i honestly have no idea what came out of my mouth when i started speaking on thursday night. here's what i would have liked to say.
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So I've been here for four years, and I've always been in Rainbow. I walked into that first meeting my freshman year, and there were probably 50 or 60 people in room 527--it was packed. and I was just amazed that there could be that many queer people, all in one place! but I never would have dreamed that we could have filled the Ballroom.

i wasn't out in high school--not to more than my closest friends--and i was That Kid who came to college and got uber-Queer just to prove a point. and it was important for me at that time to have Rainbow as a place i could do that and be that, to explore my queer identity. and over the last seven semesters as an officer, i've grown up a lot, and become even more sure of myself--and secure in my identity.

seven semesters. jesus fuck. i literally do not know what my life would be without Rainbow Alliance. i've learned more from this organization than from any of my classes, and possibly from all of my classes. i've learned how to deal with people--and how not to. i've learned that there is always something you can do--and i've learned how to tell when it's better left alone. i've learned that i can, in fact, stand in front of hundreds of people and be whatever the hell I Am.

i've made some of the best friends of my life here. and that's a large part of the reason this city has come to feel so much like Home to me. never underestimate the value of that.

so I guess, the last thing I need to say is, Thank you. thank all of you for making this organization what it is and for helping me to get out of it all that i have.