I remember calling my mom, crying when I found out that sorority recruitment was the same weekend my brother was going to play his last homecoming football game in high school. My little brother and I are closer than most brothers and sisters and I am blessed to have him by my side. He means more to me than anything. So yeah, missing his last homecoming football game was something that meant the world to me.

I was having a difficult time adjusting to college life as a freshman. High school was what I knew as the best four years of my life; I was friends with everybody, and I was always having a good time. I knew all my teachers really well and I was comfortable in high school; needless to say, I am not a shy person. In fact, I find myself talkingtoo much the majority of the time. But there was something about being an entire state away, surrounded by people I didn’t know, without my family to fall back on, that kept me quiet and made me feel alone.

Being in college, I had not a single slice of home with me besides all of the pictures I had on my wall, and I hated it. It seemed as if everyone else I graduated high school with was enjoying their college experience, and here I was, binge-watching "Grey’s Anatomy" and "90210."\ When in actuality, I should have been out having a good time, meeting new people, enjoying my newly found independent life.

My mom insisted I didn’t come home. This wasn’t because she didn’t want to see me, of course, but because she knew that I always wanted to be a part of a sorority and didn’t want one football game keeping me from going through recruitment. She knew I wanted to wear Greek letters and that I wanted to have a house full of sisters that I could love unconditionally. She knew this was a chance for me to find people who were just like myself and that I would regret not staying for recruitment.

So, I stayed. I stood in nine hot rooms, met almost too many women, and loved every second of it.

Phi Sigma Sigma is the reason that I can call college my home away from home; and soon, after every new member meeting, every big/little mixer, sitting through what seemed to be an entire year of an initiation, Phi Sigma Sigma became a part of me.

Phi Sigma Sigma teaches me to Aim High every day. My sisters remind me that there will be bad days, but those bad days will be taken over by many good days you will encounter throughout your life. Each and every sister has pushed me to be the best that I can be. They have accepted me at my worst, and enjoyed me at my best.. I have found my soul mates; those people that seem to understand me when I can’t understand myself. Since joining Phi Sigma Sigma, I have never felt alone. And I know I never will feel alone again.

God gave me the right pair of shoes when he sent me to college, a pair that gave me every chance to take on the world in whatever way I wanted. When I received my bid from Phi Sigma Sigma, He gave me the chance to do it all with my sisters by my side. I was given everything I was looking for in a sisterhood, everything I had hoped for and more.

Phi Sigma Sigma reminds me countless times that life is beautiful, and should never be overlooked. Some people think sorority girls are “paying for their friends” If you asked me, no matter what the price we pay may be, there could never be a price on the true meaning sisterhood. I will never be able to put a price on what the sisters of Phi Sigma Sigma have done, and continue to do for me. From the outside looking in, you will never be able to understand it. It is then when you are on the other side, that you realize that you will never be able to fully explain it to those who stereotype being a part of a sorority as such a negative thing.

Being a part of Phi Sigma Sigma is more than taking pretty pictures and decorating huge letters for the next round of recruitment. Our letters do not make us better than anyone else, they make us better than the person we were before we became a part of our sisterhood. Our letters remind us why we are a part of something that is bigger than ourselves. Together we complete each other. There is nobody else I would rather share my heart with.

Once a Phi Sigma Sigma, Always a Phi Sigma Sigma.