Passion Story of the Month| October

happy fall y'all! (oh man, it feels so weird saying y'all! i don't know why!? I'm from the South, so you would think the word would be in my daily vocabulary, right? wrong! I actually don't like saying y'all. I say you guys instead. don't ask me why, i just do but for the purpose of the quote and rhyming, I had to type the dreaded "y'all". never again tho😅😆.) 

anyways, I am so excited that it is finally feeling like fall here in the South. I have been waiting impatiently for the opportunity to drink hot chocolate and not break into a sweat on the way to my classes. tbh, I love fall not only for the colorful leaves, but it is so much easier to dress for. all I have to do is throw on a sweater, jeans, and a pair of boots and I instantly look cute & put together for class. what's not love?

okay. okay. enough blabbering about fall! the real reason why I am excited about this post is because it's my FIRST EVER PASSION STORY ENTRY!!!!!🎊🎊🎊 

Today's Passion Story is about MacKenzie Wilson!! She is the Co-Founder and Creative Director for Delight Ministries, a nationwide ministry inviting college women into Christ-centered community that fosters vulnerability and transforms stories! The first time I met her was at a convocation for my school and immediately after talking to her, I knew I had to have her be one of my passion story features! The conversation we had was so down-to-earth and inspirational and I could not help but share it with you guys.

so without further ado...

ice breakers:

fave color: pink

fave holiday: either 4th of July or Christmas but probably Christmas (she and her dad are absolutely obsessed with watching the Hallmark movies #goals)

do you have any pets? if so, how many and what is/are the name(s)?: I do not personally have a pet, but my family has a dog and his name is Boulder. He's the best and the sweetest! He's also the biggest scardy cat; it's really sad actually since he has been diagnosed with PTSD by a dog therapist. I am such a dog person and I am dying to get a dog one day (a golden retriever), but I'm waiting until I have a little bit more stability in my life. Honestly, I would take him everywhere because my dog is going to be my best friend!

if you could eat only one meal for the rest of your life, what meal would that be?: steak and a baked potato with a good dinner salad before hand and ice cream for dessert. 

now for the heavy-hitters:

Q: What is your passion?

A: I've been trying to better define my passion because I think a lot of times we automatically assume that our passion is what we do. And sometimes I think you have to dig deeper beneath that. Especially when you're young and you're trying to define who you are; you're so quick to define yourself by what you do. My ultimate passion is helping people unlock purpose through the Lord in their life. And I see the best purpose is to live for the Lord, helping people find the Lord, giving them that purpose, and watching them carry out their purpose into their life. 

Q: How did you realize you wanted to help people find their purpose through the Lord?

A: My dad is a pastor, so I grew up in a Christian home and I was really into my faith in high school. But I was really good at "walking the walk" and I think that I wasn't as good at believing the things that I was doing. I was doing more of the things I thought Christians did because I didn't want to disappoint my parents. But when I came to college, I really found out what it looked like to follow Jesus on my own and in my own way; I was able to step into an intimate relationship with him and it changed everything. I found purpose for the first time that was beyond music (she was previously a songwriting major). So, I saw how much it transformed my story and it was one of those things that I knew I couldn't keep to myself and the biggest way I found the Word was through community. I felt like I wanted to create that same type of environment for other people and it wasn't this huge dream or vision. It was more like if I could do for one or two people, how cool would that be and that kind of just grew more upon that. God transformed my life and I knew that it wasn't going to stop with me; I wanted to be a part of someone else's transformation.

Q: How did you go about developing your passion or become more skilled in it? 

A: I feel like my passion has so many different factors. There are two sides to what I do: there's the ministry side and there's the more creative, PR (Public Relations) side. As far as the creative/ PR side, you can learn a lot of it in school, but so much of it is what I call "fake-it-til-you-make-it" because you're not going to know what you're doing. But, the cool part about life is all the good ideas have already been done, so you have to find the people that you love & respect and learn from them, ask questions, and emulate what they do. For me, I grew as a creative and PR practitioner by watching other people do things really well and saying I want to do that really well too. Always ask for help or advice and then just go for it and if you fail, you fail but maybe it will be awesome! I've just trusted my gut instinct and sought out counsel on the way. Never be afraid to fail. I learned so many software and programs simply because I naively believed I could do it. In the ministry realm, I sacrificed a lot (my senior year, I quit everything but Delight). But it was so cool because sometimes it's good to put all your eggs into one basket and just fully engross yourself in a dream idea and if it fails, you gained a lot of experience. And if it succeeds, you've created something very beautiful! It's always been God's plan and there is nothing that I can do really to make it happen any faster. It doesn't matter what gift we bring to God; he's the multiplier. It's about what God does with those offerings that we bring to him, not about how much or how good we are.

Q: What do you envision for the next 5 or 10 years for Delight Ministries?

A: We want every single college female out there to have access to the Delight Chapter, meaning we have a Delight Chapter at every single college campus. For us, it looks like continuing to dig deeper into our lane and continuing to foster Christ-centered community on college campuses. That looks like us continuing to spread the Word and being present like God taught us to. For me personally, I love storytelling and doing things like this [chatting about life over tea and hot chocolate] because lives change when you sit across a table with people. I want to invest my time deeply in the lane that I feel like God has called me to and in five years, I hope I am still doing this.

Q: What advice do you have for someone who is interested in what your doing or is still figuring out their passion? 

A:  Don't be afraid to jump in! If you have an interest in anything, sit down with people, ask questions, and ask to volunteer so you can learn from people that you look up to, love, and respect and who are doing things that you would want to do one day. Most importantly, be present with them. Do internships. Volunteer. Do things like that because those are the things that  will pay off in the end. Also, study hard and go to school, but the best learning happens outside the classroom!

social medias:

@delightminitsries

@macleighwilson

Thank you MacKenzie SO MUCH for being my FIRST EVER PASSION STORY FEATURE!! I hope you guys enjoyed this month's story and I can't wait for you to read November's! It comes out on the 26th! Alright Classy Crew, have a great week and I'll catch you next Sunday! Don't forget to "stay classy"💜