I felt a vibration in my pocket as my phone was blowing up with text messages and DMs from my friends. I didn’t have the chance to look at my phone until later on the bus ride home. I had just won the election for the 60th Southeast Council Godol, and I was beyond ecstatic. It felt as if everything I’d done for the past 4 years had started paying off, but I knew it wasn’t even the beginning of the things to come. It was the start of a new chapter, the beginning of something special. It was a culmination of all the things I had done, but it was also a sign that we had just entered overtime.

I thought back to everything that made me who I was in that moment, and I remembered that it all started with an idea, an idea that was hatched 4 years prior in 2019. In the spring of 2019, the AZA and BBG chapters in Charleston were folded and merged into the current chapter of Charleston BBYO. While it was sad and the end of an incredible era, it was a necessary move in order to keep BBYO in Charleston. For many years, both CHAZA #143 and Iris Baker #1134 had been big chapters, holding consistent events with lots of members in attendance. In 2016, in fact, the largest delegation from (then) Dixie Council was 18 members. Dixie council was small yet mighty.  

When COVID-19 struck, all of Eastern Region shut down in-person programming. However, this didn’t stop the council board from making history. They carefully and skillfully crafted legislation to change the name of the council. What was then Dixie Council became Southeast Council (SEC). The newly named Southeast Council was off to an immaculate start to the 20-21 year. 

In the next 2 years, 3 new communities have restarted throughout SEC. SEC, which spans all of South Carolina and Georgia except for Atlanta, came back switch more force and better than it’s ever been. Serving on the final Southeast Council Board as Council Moreh was a dream come true. I had been given the ability to leave an impact on the council that had given me so much. I helped restart chapters throughout the council in places like Savannah, GA. I also coordinated our New Member Weekend in 2022 with the other 5 council morim, and it was one of the greatest weekends of my life. I was able to see the impact I was making on the region and know that the Council and region were both going to be left in good hands. 

At spring convention in 2023, I was elected as the 60th SEC Godol. Since then, SEC has absolutely shattered records in the first semester alone. Firstly, Gesher BBYO made its glorious return to conventions in November 2023 with Eastern Region’s New Member Weekend. Second, both chapters from Savannah sent delegates to every convention in 2023, a first for a really long time. Third and finally, SEC had its largest IC delegation in nearly 10 years with 20+ members. 

As the second semester began, my last semester in BBYO finally made its appearance. As the great Dan Wilson once said, “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.” As such, I am excited to make some final waves and create something that will live in the history books as the story of the great beginnings of the Southeast Council in Eastern Region. I hope to pass on the greatest thing in SEC history to be continued for years to come, with that tradition being the sentence “SEC 🔛 🔝”. I was taught to leave things better than I found it when I go into other’s spaces, and I can say with very high certainty that SEC is better than when I found it, and will continue to be better and more successful than my wildest dreams.