Your Friend at the Door
By: Jessica O., Grand Confidential Observer and Rep. to KS/NB, Central Coast
My name is Jessica O. and I am your Grand Confidential Observer and Representative to Kansas and Nebraska for our centennial Grand Assembly in 2022! I’m so very excited for all I will learn this year and the memories I will make with the Milestone Making Meerkats! But first, I would love to introduce myself so you can get to know a little bit about me.
My Rainbow life began in 2012 when I was a pledge girl. I have a small family history with Rainbow, but I was pushed to join in on all the fun and soon fell in love with this organization. At the age of nine, I did what I could by attending fun projects, helping out at fundraisers, and even attended my first Grand Assembly. It was a truly magical experience and my spark for Rainbow grew from there. I continued to do as much as I could, whenever I could. I was even lucky enough to be a part of the Pledge presentation during Grand Assembly in 2013. After a bit more waiting, I was finally old enough to join my local Rainbow Assembly, Central Coast. From there I took every opportunity I could, eventually finding myself in the Grand Choir for Grand Assembly in 2016, where I experienced a taste of what being in the grand family was like and may I say, the hairpiece takes a little getting used to. In 2020, I surprisingly became a sweepstakes winner for my photography submission for our arts & crafts competition! How crazy is that! Slightly before this, in 2019, I joined the Public Relations team and had a blast at our retreat where I met girls from all over California who were as excited as I was to work together to make amazing things happen and we did! In 2021, I continued on the team to lead the blog project while helping with merchandise, assembly packets, resources, and social media scheduling, to name a few. This year, my most recent Rainbow milestone was when I was installed as Grand Confidential Observer and Representative to Kansas and Nebraska! That weekend was a whirlwind but I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Outside of Rainbow, I was active in my High School Theatre Company where I helped with the behind-the-scenes jobs such as being a prop master, director, stage manager, lighting designer, and technician. I had a lovely time traveling with my theatre company to their state thespian festival as well as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in the summer. But above all, I love stage managing and my passion for the work I did led me to be awarded the “best stage manager award” at our annual banquet. While balancing my Rainbow life and my theatre life, I managed to be awarded the eagle recognition award for my work in academics along with my extracurriculars during my senior year of high school. I can surely say that I wouldn’t have been able to work as confidently, as professionally, or as passionately if I wasn’t a Rainbow Girl as well.
Other than working, I promise I have fun! Specifically, I enjoy traveling which I have been lucky enough to do for many years as I have traveled annually to visit my family in Wisconsin during my summers and joined along with my middle school theatre program to go to New York City once! Getting on a plane and traveling around the U.S has always been a ton of fun for me and I’m so excited to potentially visit my representative states in person soon! Fun Fact: my favorite holiday is Halloween! I enjoy it so much that I volunteer annually with my hometown’s parks and recreation department to throw on a Halloween Carnival and Haunted Maze! Every year I participate as a decorator for the mansion as well as an actor in the maze itself which is always a blast! As you may have been able to tell from an earlier discussed award I won, I love photography! I was never gifted with the ability to draw or sing or dance but I know my way around a camera! My last hobby I will share is my love for creative writing! As I often enjoy watching films or reading books, I adore writing my own stories and often have a storyline or two rattling around in my head waiting to be put to paper. Maybe one day I’ll pull together these ideas and write a novel, you never know what the future will hold.
But for now, I have my sights set on making the most out of my grand year and creating every lasting memory I can with my fellow Milestone-Making Meerkats! I hope you enjoyed this little get to know me and I can’t wait to see you all again very soon!
