I wanted to rush a sorority because my big sister is in a sorority. I was excited to "throw what I know" with her and buy her cute gifts and make her crafts for Christmas. Little did I know that having a sister in a different chapter than mine would change our entire relationship.
My big sister, Emma, is an Alpha Xi Delta at the University of Northern Iowa. Our chapters are very different. Kappa Delta at Mizzou has almost 80 women in every pledge class, while Alpha Xi Delta at UNI has 60 women total. She has chapter every Sunday, while mine is on Monday nights. Alpha Xi Delta elects their council completely differently than Kappa Delta. We often find ourselves having a hard time understanding why the other person's chapter does what it does. But we always have time and patience to listen to each other's daily sorority life.
The one thing that we do have in common is that we share the same white initiation dress. It started with my sister asking me to mail her "that white dress" that was hanging in my closet my senior year of high school for her own initiation. She kept the white dress at school for the rest of the year so she could use it for various other ritual events. When I rushed Kappa Delta this year, I used the dress for two pre-initiation ceremonies and then for my own initiation. After I got initiated, I packed up the infamous white dress and shipped it to Iowa so Emma could wear it for Alpha Xi Delta's freshman pledge class initiation.
This isn't just any other white initiation dress — this dress was born to be the special connection between myself and my sister. This dress has been through 3 initiations, countless ritual ceremonies, and many, many more to come. Our special dress knows the secrets of Alpha Xi Delta and Kappa Delta that my sister and I can't share with each other. Our dress knows what AOT and TFJ mean. Our dress is a member of both Kappa Delta and Alpha Xi Delta.
Our dress signifies how special it is to have a biological sister in a different chapter than you. You both learn about the other's sorority and learn to understand more about your own sorority. Most of the dinner table conversations over Thanksgiving break were about sorority and fraternity life. (My dad was a Lambda Chi Alpha!) My sister and I share a special bond because we aren't sorority sisters, but sisters whose sisterhood has grown stronger because of a simple white dress.
