baby steps

in january of 2006, a mocktail bar was a mere germ of an idea. kind of like the stage that it's in today, only even less developed. a young woman, who had worked at a restaurant and had observed how much fun people had drinking socially together, decided to throw a mocktail party for her friends, because most of them didn't drink and wouldn't even consider stepping into a bar, just for the fun of it.

everyone had a blast. pretty soon friends wanted her to bartend for their parties and she started to think she might be able to make some money with this.

also during that semester, she took a business french class that was really hard and made her fairly irritable. until they got to the final class project: develop a business idea of your own and present it to the class.

bingo.

she convinced her class partner to work on this idea with her, and so they hit the main points of running this kind of business and made a powerpoint presentation in french. she served mocktails to her classmates to be a brown-noser, and as an excuse to spend money on martini glasses. after the presentation she asked her professor who she could talk to more, if she wanted to do this thing for real.

her professor gave her a reference. but then, at the last minute, she ran away for the summer and had some crazy and painful experiences and neglected the idea. she came back to school and had some more crazy and painful experiences and all but forgot about the idea. through her pain she found that she dearly wanted to help people with substance addictions. she realized that she had some valuable knowledge, and a unique perspective on this canker to society and families.

interestingly enough, she ran into this professor again one night at a french activity. he recognized her and remembered her idea and encouraged her to contact him for the reference. she was encouraged.

through her pain, she found new purpose. she decided that no matter what happened with the business, it was important to try. layered to her idea of wanting to sell virgin drinks, she found a deeper purpose: educate people about drugs, and promote sobriety.

she's translated her powerpoint presentation into english, and is adding more slides about her new-found vision. she's arranging to meet with this business reference.

this girl doesn't know where the virgin lips project will go. maybe nowhere. but this girl knows that she has to try.