People are often shocked when they learn that my best friend isn't one of the friends I "pay for." Outside of the Greek community, it's assumed that the only people you are friends with are those within your brother or sisterhood. But for me, and many other Greeks, some of my closest friends will never share the joys of my ritual because they have rituals of their own. I'm president of my sorority, and my best friend is the Vice President of Recruitment of her own. Sound awkward? Not at all.
When you and your friend find homes in different organizations, you grow in ways you never would have had you joined the same one. We are pushed against each other and to each other. We support each other in problems that we can never know the true volume of because our meetings are closed and we can't discuss details with each other. We smile through odd looks and scoffs as we attempt to throw our signs together, and laugh as people try to decipher why her jersey and mine only have one letter that matches.
Having a best friend in another sorority is truly a blessing. She is there for me to lean on when things get stressful in my chapter, and I just want someone to hang out with that isn't part of my workload (sorry, sisters!). Even though we come from different places, we understand each other's frustrations and can vent to one another without having to be afraid that the rest of the world will find out about our problems. Is a pledge class sister upsetting me? I know that she'll listen and understand without having a chapter-based bias. Is she struggling with her little? I can offer advice from the outside. Our separate experiences offer a combined wealth of knowledge and time that benefits us, not separates us.
One of the most rewarding parts of our friendship is seeing how it affects new Greek Life members. Girls will come to recruitment with their friends and be afraid that if they choose different sororities, everything will be ruined for them. But then they see my best friend and I running across campus, happily shouting each other's names, and colliding in a big hug while wearing two completely different color schemes. In my opinion, double blue and gold has never looked better with steel grey and turquoise. When girls see this unhindered love and friendship, they realize that Greek Life doesn't tear people apart. They understand that just because their sisters wear one badge, it doesn't mean they can't be close with girls that wear another. They don't have to feel the same sisterhood as their best friend, and that's okay.
I'd like to end this with a note to my best friend, Paige: thank you for being there for me and being my friend. Thank you for listening to me practice my sorority's chants and learning the Greek Alphabet with me, even if you didn't need to know it. Thank you for defending and protecting a ritual you don't even know because you now how much it means to me, and thank you for having my back when your sisters make assumptions about me.
I promise that I will continue to support you when you feel frustrations in your own chapter. I promise to always make a team for your philanthropy events and to make sure the relationship between our sororities is always working to be as strong as ours. I promise to protect your ritual, even if I don't know it, and will always fly to visit your big with you. Most of all, I promise to always love and treasure you just as I love and treasure my sisters, because you are my sister, too.
