It’s true. I go to a school in the South and I’m in the sorority. I remember in high school girls would talk about what they were most excited for about college and say “I can’t what to join a sorority”. I had no idea what this was.

At this point, honestly, I didn’t know the difference between a sorority and a fraternity, even though it’s pretty self-explanatory. So when I looked it up online, all I saw were letters I couldn’t read (which I would soon see all over my college campus) and the typical stereotypes of “sorority girls”.

Going to college, Greek life was far far far on my list of things to do. I didn’t know if I wanted to rush, and I didn’t think I would. On my college campus, about 60% of the student body is involved in Greek life. However, I knew when I applied to rush I wanted to go through the process because I wanted to join an organization, not because everyone else was joining.

Over the time of my first semester of freshman year, I learned that everything they said online about “sorority girls” and “ranks” and every other stereotype was not necessarily true at all. I met amazing people in every organization, each one proud to wear their letters and support their philanthropy.

Two of my biggest role-models who happened to also be in the dance program with me a grade older really stood out to me. They were some of the most genuine, down to earth people I had ever met. Their love for dance and passion to create inspired me.

Their ability to voice their own opinions while always being there to listen was admirable. And I knew they would always be there to offer me advice when I needed it or guide me in the right direction when I lost my way. I learned all this about them before I even knew they were involved in Greek life.

After going through rush, I was lucky enough to join the organization that they were already apart of. It’s true to trust the process because you will end up where you belong. Some of my closest friends that I met my first few weeks at Elon happened to join the same organization as me. Organizations are value-based, and knowing that I found a place like Kappa Delta where girls were able to push me to do better and challenge me was reassuring, especially as I was still adjusting to college.

I liked my sorority, but I didn’t have a chance to get as involved or close with some girls as I had hoped because of my crazy dance schedule. It wasn’t actually until this January during recruitment that I really found my place in my organization and fell in love with it.

I was able to get closer to girls and go up to any of them even if we had never met before and have a real conversation with them. Something so unique about my organization is that any girl can go up to me and say, “hey, let’s get lunch together,” and we make it happen.

Kappa Delta has introduced me to what it means to find my place and have people to look up to. It has encouraged me to be a role-model within Elon and the outside community. KD has given me expectations and goals to live up to in order to represent myself and my organization in the best way possible. I am lucky I joined Kappa Delta because it has given me the confidence I need to voice my opinion as we constantly work to empower all women, especially our sisters.