As I came into college, my friends that I thought I was going to be friends with forever quickly started to drift away. It wasn't that we didn't like each other anymore or just chose not to be friends, it was just the fact that we were moving on to different phases in our lives and our paths didn't cross as much anymore.

However, after being in college for almost a year and a half now, I have come to realize why these friendships were only around for a short phase of my life.

Joining a sorority is hands down the best decision I have made in college thus far for so many reasons. These girls have introduced me to a type of friendship, or sisterhood rather, that I didn't even know existed. Of course, throughout my entire freshman year I appreciated these girls and valued our friendships, but after living in the sorority house with 40 of them, I have come to cherish them even more then I knew was possible.

I was familiar with the common idea that "these girls would be my bridesmaids one day". However, it wasn't until this semester that I could honestly apply it to my own life and truly begin to picture it for myself.

Living with these girls has made us so much closer, and not just a 'best friend' closer, but in such a way that makes our souls genuinely happy to be around each other. We miss each other when one goes home for the weekend, or when one goes to visit her boyfriend at his college, or even when one goes on a trip to the grocery store and we feel like they are gone for too long. Breaks are the best, of course because everyone gets to go home and see their family, but the best part is reuniting after that break because those 3 or 4 days felt like years spent apart from each other.

These are the girls that help me on my speech outline until 5 o'clock in the morning because I have no idea what I am doing, or take me to work every Tuesday/Thursday morning, or who go to the beach with my family and I during fall break, or who I stay with at their house in their hometown, or who I get matching tattoos with, or who are always down to go get food at 3 in the morning with me, or who always accompany me to the library very last minute because I decided to procrastinate all week, or who go with me to Walmart because I just really want brussels sprouts and a smoothie, or who pick me up from class because I am just too tired to walk all the way across campus to the bus, or who go grab coffee with me at 10 o'clock at night, or who are always excited to go on new adventures together, or who talks about our life together at 4 am because we are delusional and we just need to vent, and who I can always count on to tell me to have a good day as I'm walking out the door or ask how my day was when I get back.

These are the girls I can count on to take care of my physical, mental, and emotional stability when I fall short of doing that for myself. (Because let's face it, in college that seems to happen pretty regularly)

Everyday I wake up in the beautiful mansion that I live in with 40 of my best friends and I become even more appreciative of them than I was the day before. These are the girls that I have waited my whole life to come across. A true and sincere friendship. These are the girls that I have only known for a little over a year but it feels like we have been friends for a lifetime, because they just get me. These are the girls that live in completely different states all over the country, but every time we are reunited it's like we never skipped a beat. These are the girls who have my back in a way that I could've only dreamed of before I came here. These are the girls that never hesitate to stand up for me in times of need and who tell me what I need to hear with nothing but my best interest in mind.

These are my girls. My people... and I will cherish them and the bond that we have every day.

Everybody deserves to have people like these and I truly believe that everyone meets their long-lost soul sisters at some point in life. For me, these girls weren't around until I got to college. They did nothing but bring joy and (fun) chaos that needed to be brought to my life.

I whole-heartedly believe that you gain some of the most important people in your life around the darkest times when you seem to need them the most. These girls came around at the perfect time when everything in my life seemed to be taking a spiral downfall and I can't explain the light they have brought to me.

Being a Zeta Tau Alpha means more to me than anybody might ever know, but aside from the actual sisterhood itself, meeting 'my people' who genuinely love me and accept me for who I am is something I wish everyone gets the opportunity to experience at some point in their lifetime.