I know it’s cliche to say that my sorority changed my life — and you’re probably thinking, “Oh God not another sorority girl talking about how much she loves glitter and throwing what she knows” but, it’s not like that at all.

Even in high school I always knew I wanted to be in Greek Life. At that point I didn’t know if I was doing it for all the right reasons, but I knew it was something I longed for. My brother was a year older than me and already a freshman in college and raved about how much he loved his fraternity (I even bought him letters for Christmas). When I was finally eligible to go out for Greek Life my second semester of freshman year, my mind was all over the place. I didn’t know where I felt like I belonged. I think that was a large reason why I wanted to go out— I wanted to feel like I belonged somewhere.

In truth, I didn’t know which direction I wanted to go. It wasn’t until I walked into the colorful, loud room during bid day when I said to myself, “I made the right decision to accept their bid”. Little did I know how much those girls were going to impact my life.

It starts off with managing my time. One of the questions I asked as I went through recruitment was how time-consuming the pledging process would be. The answers I received ranged from “yeah I managed my time well,” to “It was tough.. really tough”, some even dodged the question as a whole. No one warned me how much of my schedule would be blocked off to dedicate to my upcoming sisterhood. I liked it though, I really liked it. At first, I was a tad overwhelmed but I learned to take it hour by hour, then day by day, and soon it just became a routine for me to schedule myself. I loved being busy and feeling like I was spending my time towards something that I enjoyed doing.

I made genuine relationships. I hate, hate, hate it when people say I paid for my friends. There isn’t a dollar-amount available on earth to even equate to the kind of connections I’ve made in my organization. I was actually very surprised at how quickly I learned to love a group of people to the point where it just became natural. I remember crying one night during my process because I was going through personal issues, then a group of my older sisters invited me over as I was crying in the lobby and just distracted me for the moment; we sat around and I just remembered laughing my problems away. I bring myself back to that night because it reminds me how much love I’m surrounded by. The friends I’ve made in my organization will last me a lifetime.

I realized I wanted more responsibilities. After seeing how much work each sister put into our sorority to make it what it is, I knew I wanted to be a part of that. After being initiated, I realized I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to be a part of something so much bigger than myself, that would leave it’s own impact— even if it’s just on one person. I wanted to be able to say, “Yeah, I did that”. Being a sister has taught me so much, I had obligations to maintain and even though I have days where I just want to stay in bed, I know it’s my moral imperative to get out of bed and do something with my day.

I set my priorities straight. You’ve probably heard it all before, when you get into college you’ll have to sacrifice a part of your life whether it be personal health, love life, sleep, etc. Joining my sorority helped me understand that I wasn’t sacrificing anything; I was discovering what actually mattered to me. I’m not going to lie, my first semester was heavily focused on making friends and socializing at every opportunity I had. I realize now that my primary reason for being in college is to better myself, my community, my friends and my family.

Partying and waking up the next morning with a sick hangover was fun at first, but after awhile it got old. Don’t get me wrong, I still love going out and having a good time, but now I know that it’s perfectly fine if I want to spend a night in with my sisters and watch Harry Potter movies. My priorities became more clear to me as I became a sister. Since this was something I definitely I wanted, I had to keep at it. I understood that if you wanted something bad enough, you’ll always have to keep at it.

Times did get rough, it wasn’t all laughs and hugs like the pictures made it seem like, sometimes I wanted to pull my hair out and cry from the stress (I still do), but I know I am where I need to be. Every day I thank my lucky stars for my sorority and how much it’s making me into the woman I strive to be.