Sweet Tea: It’s your choice

Welcome to another month, another season and the final few weeks of 2026. It may sound dramatic, but you know how quickly time rockets from November to New Year’s!

FIRST, ABOUT THOSE ELECTIONS ...

We’re also days away from a highly consequential (and highly stressful) midterm election. My advice to you, as someone who’s worked many elections and occasionally paid for it with my physical and mental health:

• Keep focus on what you can affect: The happiness and wellbeing of loved ones and neighbors, for instance. If you don’t volunteer or participate in community activities, now is the time to really, actually do it. It will re-center your perspective.
• Imagine a better future: This has nothing to do with whether the elections swing the way you want. If you yearn for positive change, you first have to imagine a world in which that change actually occurs. How do we get from here to there? What happens tomorrow, or right now, that puts us on the path to a brighter future? It can’t be achieved in a day, or in a single election cycle. Keep that vision in your mind and heart, and it will be easier to see all the ways you can help make it so.

This all sounds very esoteric, but if you actually set aside any reservations about how silly it may feel (“Not now, honey, I’m trying to visualize incremental positive change.”), you will be shocked at how effective it is.

Is there much to stress about? Always. You need to find a way through that stress to be the version of yourself the world needs most.

DRESS FOR SUCCESS

Here’s an organization that came about because people saw a need in the world, and knew they could meet that need. They couldn’t fix everything, but they could fix this.

• Dress For Success provides underserved women with polished clothes for the workplace as well as professional development opportunities.
• It began in New York in 1996, when Nancy Lublin used a small inheritance to start the nonprofit in the basement of a church.
• Now, you can find Dress for Success chapters in most major U.S. cities, and worldwide.
• In Georgia, Dress For Success’ Atlanta chapter just went statewide. It’s the culmination of a years-long turnaround from when the Atlanta chapter was struggling and in dire need of finances in 2018.
• Now, Dress For Success Georgia is expanding their offerings to include more professional development and more networking opportunities. They also just scored a van through a donation from Mercedes-Benz USA, so they can bring their charitable closet magic on the road.

The moral of the story? It began with one woman, but with the dedication and generosity of countless others, has become a worldwide force for good. You don’t have to do it all. Do something, and others will join in.

👠 READ MORE: How DFS Georgia is serving area women

SIPS FROM AROUND THE SOUTH

🏫 Aubrey, TX: A retired custodian got the surprise of her life when she learned a new elementary school will be named after her. Marilyn Hampton worked in Aubrey Independent School District for 39 years. Now, the district’s newest school will be christened Marilyn Hampton Elementary. More from KOLN-KGIN

💡 Jonesboro, GA: A Clayton County commissioner spent time learning from formerly incarcerated community members, who explained the social and structural challenges that keep them from making a fresh start. The listening session included Barred Business, an organization that helps people re-enter the workforse. One man explained he had no strong role models when he began his two-decade prison sentence. Eventually, he earned his GED and became a tutor. More from CBS Atlanta

🏗️ Georgetown County, SC: Dozens of volunteers participated in the annual Bunnelle Days of Service, tackling 12 major home repair projects for residents in need. One of the projects will become a new home for use by the Lowcountry Veterans Group. More from WCSC