I have personally been playing a sport since I was four. Soccer was my first introduction into athletics and then I moved on to basketball. By the time I was in fourth grade, I discovered my passion: lacrosse. Now, I will be starting my senior year of college in the Fall and I am still playing lacrosse. It has been one of the most important aspects in my life and I never thought I would find something I truly enjoyed as much as I enjoyed this sport.

In high school, I started being recruited to play college lacrosse. I was absolutely thrilled about the idea of it. I found a school I was interested in playing for and became close with the coach. I was then asked by her if I had any interest in joining a sorority. I had never thought of the idea and immediately shut it down. It was a thought that had not entered my mind again until I started college and recruitment for Greek life had begun.

I became intrigued by the idea of joining a sorority as I saw the friendships and the connections they all shared. I then decided to go through the process of recruitment; I fell in love with a specific sorority and wanted nothing more than to be a part of it. The day I got my bid was one of the happiest days I have experienced in my college career. I could not wait for formals, Greek week, philanthropy events, etc. I soon realized that I now had conflicting passions and I had to find ways to make both of them work.

Being in both a sorority and a sport means I can be a part of the best of both worlds. I can dress up and have the appearance of actually being a girl for events, but I can also dress down in athletic wear and sweat out my problems on the field.

Being in both a sorority and a sport means I have to make difficult decisions based on what is most important. In regards to traveling for lacrosse, it meant I had to miss big events and formals because my first obligation was to my sport.

Being in both a sorority and a sport means I have different sets of friends. I would have the sisters of my sorority, but I would also have my teammates. I was always around friends.

But being in both a sorority and a sport means I wasn’t able to get as close to those friends as I had wanted to. Because of missing sorority events, other sisters were able to become closer with each other as I was struggling to get close with them as well. Difficulties arose, however, because I was not around as much. It was certainly not because I chose to be away from all of them. It was that my prior obligations to lacrosse were affecting those friendships. No one would truly understand how much I did want to be a part of everything sorority related. As I continued my college career, it became easier to improve those friendships.

Being in both a sorority and a sport means I can grow in different ways though. I can improve my confidence and my skills in regards to playing a sport. It has become an outlet for me. I have become more open and social with being a part of a sisterhood. In high school, I would have never taken the risks that I would have now because of what I have learned through my organizations. There may be difficulties that occur with being a part of both, but I have learned to manage them. I wish to strive to keep both in my life as equal passions. One certainly does not surpass the other because they hold equal importance to me and they always will.

Knowing what I know now, it is possible to be a part of both if you keep an open-mind, accepting that at times, one will come before the other, but no matter what: both will always hold a special place in my heart.