I remember walking down the halls my senior year and discussing college choices with a good friend. I lived in a small little town along the Gulf Coast and was dead set on going to South Alabama, where I would still be able to run home whenever I had the chance. Then, after talking to some friends in college I decided maybe staying so close to home wasn't the best for me, and if I really wanted to fly and find myself, I needed to leave home.

So, I started researching schools and finally found my home at UAB. In high school I was shy, I kept to myself, and that's all I really knew. I had my group of a few friends to see when I wasn't studying, but a lot of the time it was just me doing me. In the summer, I was talking to one of my best friends who rushed a sorority at a different school and she highly encouraged me to rush. I thought to myself "Ha! Me? Ms. Outcast? In a sorority? Yeah right!" But she pushed me as hard as she could and told me "Even if you rush, you don't have to accept a bid, but you can at least meet some new people. Please go be social!" Somehow, she got me to apply even though I just knew that there was no chance that a sorority would ever want me, but I did it to please her, so I thought.

Time kept ticking by through the summer, filled with laughs and lots of beach time with all of my best friends and then before I knew it, it was rush week. I packed up all my things and moved to Birmingham a week early. The first day, I sat in the information meeting in a pure state of shock thinking "I don't have a lot of friends. I don't like being forced to do things, and I like being by myself. This is not for me." Throughout the week, my emotions just continued to switch back and forth with what I wanted.

Finally, it was bid day. I somehow decided to stay through the week and ride it out, and even signed a bid. I fell in love with one. I remember sitting there in the pi-chi group in the back of the REC center with my heart pounding, knowing if Delta Gamma was not the name on that bid, I was going to cry. We all stood up, ripped open the bid, and there it was, a bid extended to me from Delta Gamma. Tears ran down my face. It didn't make sense why I would feel like this. We ran through the green, with our newest pledge class, all screaming in excitement and, for the first time, I ran "home."

Now like I said before, I didn't have a lot of friends so the excitement ended quickly as I began to think about how many new people I now had to interact with on a regular basis. I went through my new member period and got really close with one girl, who was a lot like me. I finally had someone to call and talk to who really understood everything I was feeling because a year ago she was in my shoes and felt the same way I did. She talked to me about my new member period, did a crash course cram session for my new member test, shoved the Greek alphabet down my throat, convinced me to not drop and to just keep pushing through, and wait until I got a big. Lucky for me, I did, and it just so happened, my best friend who helped me move and transition to college, was my big. Even though she lied to me, told me she wasn't my big, and made me cry for six hours, while I threatened to drop DG (since she was the only reason I was still in it) and got mad at the New Member Coordinator for not matching us together, I can never thank God enough I got her as my big. I didn't even speak to one of my best friends I had made during my new member period because I was convinced she got my big.

I did not think I would ever have a place I would feel so comfortable that I would call it my "home." I never thought that I would parade all over the world wearing letters constantly tying me to over 100 girls that mean the world to me. There are still times where I need to just be me and have some alone time, or where I need to escape home for the weekend to visit my family. Throughout every second I have lived so far, without my family back home supporting me and holding me up, I would have never made it this far without my best friends encouraging me to rush a sorority. But now, looking back a year later, it doesn't seem real that someone like me found a home that will always accept me for me. Delta Gamma will always be "home" for me.