day thirty-one!

Holy cow I'm done.  What is this.  Time has a really weird way of inching by at a snail's pace while simultaneously rushing past like yet another commonly used simile for the passage of time.

So here we are.  I guess I'm a veteran of sorts, of the October Dress Project, this being my third year participating in it.  Each year I've done the Project, it's forced me to reassess what I wear and how I present myself to my peers.  It makes me think critically about the subliminal message my clothing conveys, and yes, even though that sounds silly, this is a thing I do indeed take into consideration.  It actually helps a lot when I'm doing costumes for shows.

This year the October Dress Project has been about raising awareness for women who only have one dress to wear.  In particular, those women who have to wear that one dress while being forced to sell their bodies for commercial sex.  Learning more about sex trafficking is absolutely sickening, yet at the same time it's a galvanizing force that makes me want to do everything in my power to stop it.  The first step, after diagnosing the problem, is making more and more people aware of that problem, and then bringing them together to end that problem.  So in my own small way, I hope to be a part of that solution.  Because no one, man, woman, or child, should have to endure something like that with no light at the end of the tunnel.

So I raise my mug of tea in a toast to endings: bittersweet ones, because yes, however much the dress causes me issues, I still look on it with a kind of nostalgia.  And I toast to victorious endings as well-- maybe it's the end of one woman's experiences in a brothel.  Maybe it's the end of a brothel itself, and maybe it's the eradication of sex slavery.  Here's to happy endings and promising beginnings!

Today I wore the dress as a dress with a scarf, a dark brown belt, navy leggings, tall brown boots, and legwarmers:

When people asked me what I was for Halloween I told them I was an IB zombie.  Which I guess doesn't really count, seeing as I'm actually an IB zombie all the time.  IB zombies shuffle around, coffee in hand, rubbing the sleep from their eyes and muttering about CAS documentation and Extended Essay deadlines.  Oh well.  

Happy Halloween!