Let’s be honest with ourselves for a moment.
This isn’t about the way we enjoy wearing our letters and bragging about our chapter on campus. This isn’t about how we think we are perfect. This is not about how people think that because we are in a sorority, we don’t associate with people who aren’t in a sorority.
All of these stereotypes are what people get from us when they watch our recruitment videos and see thousands of women every fall show up early to KU so that we can pick which ones we let in and dismiss from our house. Let me show you the true side as to why we sorority women actually join a sorority.
1. You always have someone to do something with.
Sometimes people hate going to do things alone. If you are in a hurry, it might be nice, but if I have to do something for a long period of time, it is more fun to have someone with me. Luckily, when you are in a sorority, you have about 200 women to ask to go do something with you.
I remember when it was my first few months of being in a sorority, and my plans fell through to have a ride to the airport for Thanksgiving break. Of course, in the last minute, in my panic mode, I called up one of my sorority sisters that I had talked to maybe a few times but wasn’t at a point where I called her my friend. Marian, my sister, without hesitation said she would love to take me to the airport. When she picked me up, I’ll admit I was a little nervous to drive an hour with her, but we got in the car and the conversation just kept flowing. Now, a year later, we are really good friends, and all because I knew I had a friend to do anything with.
2. We live for social events.
I remember leaving my senior year high school prom completely devastated. I loved getting dressed up and bringing a date to a dance. Heck, we had been doing it for the last four years. All year long, the girls in sororities die to find out the date of their (Semi)Formal so they can start planning who they are going to take, what they are going to wear, and what Instagram caption they will have when they get that perfect Instagram picture.
Let’s be real; this sounds extremely stupid. However, every single girl I know would die to still go to these events just to get a little dressed up and have a little fun like we did when we were in high school. Honestly, the girls aren’t the only ones excited. We know all the guys who are secretly dying to go to these events but are just too cool to admit it.
3. You learn to live and work with everyone.
The stereotype that everyone loves everyone in their sorority is totally false! If everyone liked everyone, then yes, I agree everything would be probably happier, but in the real word, this is not how life works. One of the examples of this is recruitment. To everyone else who isn’t in a sorority, recruitment week is when we all get dressed up, look perfect, sing songs, and talk about how much we love our house (which, don’t get me wrong, we totally do).
However, this is a huge misconception within our sorority. We spend two weeks trapped inside a house with each other 24/7. This would drive you crazy even if it wasn’t in a sorority. Yet in the end, after all the disagreements, trying to fix problems, and being frustrated with literally everyone, girls in sororities learn a very important lesson. You learn to put aside your differences and work with everyone.
The lesson in this is that it actually prepares you for life after college. You won’t always like everyone that you work with when you go out into the world and get a job. However, if you still want to get paid and keep your job, you need to learn to put aside your differences and work together. I thank my sorority for teaching me this valuable lesson.
4. You experience a bond like no other.
If I’m being honest, when I was in high school, I never really thought about joining a sorority. Yet, because my mom was a sorority woman, I felt that I had to go through recruitment and find my own home. After telling her I didn’t want her to get her hopes up of me joining the same sorority, I showed up on those steps of the house during recruitment, walked inside, and fell in love.
One week later, I became a sorority woman, and every once in a while, when I’m feeling homesick, I’ll go downstairs to where my mother’s composite picture is hanging and smile. The bond that grew between me going into a sorority was not just from my sisters but from my mother. We talked about what it was like when she was in the house, what positions I should run for, and what positions she had. My mom is a very important part of my life, so to have another special aspect of our life to tie us even closer has always meant the world to me.
Thankfully, it’s a bond that never ends, because a sorority isn’t just for four years; it’s for life.