There are 3,418,059,380 capable, unique women on this extraordinary earth. All around us, women with skin tones of the neutral rainbow must band together, because we are all in search of the same overarching goal: happiness.
Happiness comes in doses, both big and small ones that leave us smiling and laughing. We characterize these doses of happiness into two categories: the “I feel it right now for whatever reason happiness” and the “I will feel this same happiness in a couple or even ten years from now.” During college, we are often more focused on the transitory happiness, or what will make us happy right now, but we all know there are endless changes and curveballs that knock us out of our happiness path. It is our purpose and choice to be eternally happy, to find what holistically raises our youthful spirits and never let it go.
In order to discover this true, sparkling (I can feel it in my bones) happiness, we must stop comparing ourselves to those around us. Girls are naturally competitive, yes, like those scarily realistic jungle animals that the cast of "Mean Girls" would casually transform into after a sea of catty back and forth remarks. While competition is inevitable in today’s society, we must remember it is impossible for one person to be the best at everything. Women need to both magnify their strengths and recognize their weakness, while simultaneously acknowledging assets other women around them have to offer.
I see women on college campuses raise each other up in educational, recreational, and social settings. We all receive, and sometimes read, those informational emails from our prospective majors or specific colleges that hope to inspire us to do something productive with our free time, like apply for an internship, volunteer on or around campus, or simply attend a club meeting. The women that read these emails (yes, that is the hardest part), process the information, and maybe, just maybe, think of how this could benefit someone on their hall, the girl next to them in class, or even the family of sorority women many of us so closely identify ourselves with.
For those in the Greek community, the strenuous, but enjoyable process of rush is quickly approaching. Many women feel an unwavering sense of pressure stemming from the competitive nature of panhellenic recruitment. We are all in search of ambitious, outgoing, intelligent women, yet we are often quick to judge on more insignificant matters during this process. We need to remind ourselves that recruitment is our opportunity to be a united front of women who collectively hope to find homes for girls just like us.
In order to achieve our goal of eternal happiness, we must rid the idea of unhealthy competition, stop judging women based on superficial means, and work to maintain respect for each other in our daily lives. Women should inspire other women to unify with pride and to lead with confidence. If we can do that, we can achieve anything.
