Coming into college is difficult, there's no doubt about it. Students come in with all sorts of preconceptions about dorm life, partying, drinking, dating, the lack of money, and of course, Greek life. All throughout high school, I had developed the mindset that Greek life was exactly like you see in the movies and there was no doubt about it. I figured the sororities on my future college's campus were going to be exactly like either Delta Nu in "Legally Blonde" or the nerdy sorority in "The House Bunny;" however, as I attended my first Greek event in my first two weeks of being at UNG, I realized that Elle Woods had let me down.
In high school, I never wanted to join a sorority. There -- I said it! I went into college with that exact mentality and close-mindedness and planned to never run down the hill of the drill field to a new home. As my roommate was in class on the night that All- Greek Open House was being held, I decided to be adventurous and attend. Enough girls on my hall had talked up the idea of sororities, right? It might not be so terrible? I was immediately filled with a sense of regret after walking onto the promenade that afternoon- I just knew that nobody was going to talk to me or even want to look at me for that matter. I wandered through the six different sororities that UNG had to offer: Delta Zeta, Alpha Gamma Delta, Sigma Kappa, Phi Mu, Kappa Delta and Delta Phi Epsilon.
I was petrified, to say the least -- I felt like an outsider; however, I saw all of the sororities intermingling with each other. I had expected each sorority to build walls around themselves and breathe fire at any other sororities that came near them. I expected a panhellenic war, yet what I saw was anything but. I saw how each sorority had their own friends and expectations, sure, but also that they weren't afraid to al be friends with one another (#PanLove). I waved to a few sororities but ended up striking up a conversation with the wonderfully loving ladies of Delta Zeta (huge shoutout to Amber Henry ily).
Little did I know that five months later, I would be sitting in the auditorium of Hoag waiting to see if I got a bid from the sorority I wanted with my whole heart- DZ. Turns out I ended up going to Greekapalooza and many other events hosted by various sororities since August of 2015, and I found a forever home. I know that sounds totally cliche, and believe me, I thought it was too; however, getting my bid from Delta Zeta and running down the hill of the drill field to the girls that had become my second family brought me an indescribable joy.
I can say that I judged a book -- the book of sororities -- by its cover. It took me a while to look inside and see that the sororities at UNG were different than at any school I had ever looked at or that any of my other friends went to. UNG sororities are different- they truly uphold panhellenic love and aren't afraid to show it. I love my new home in DZ and I couldn't be happier to have chosen UNG to help me, slowly but surely, get where I needed to be.