If you would have asked me the day before sorority recruitment of my freshman year if I thought I would ever live inside a sorority house, I would have told you, “no.” If you would have asked me the day before formal sorority recruitment if I was excited to join a sorority, I would have said, “no.”
But, if you asked me now, after being a member of a sorority for close to a year and a half, if I would change any part of it, or take it back, I would also tell you, “no.”
Joining a sorority my freshman year, I was extremely skeptical. But now as a sophomore, I cannot tell you all the ways this group of women have impacted me. I could certainly try my hardest, but there is no way to put it into words.
In the beginning, I did not buy into any of it, at all. These strangers were not going to become my “sisters,” what did that even mean? They weren’t going to be my biggest “support system,” are you kidding? No way in hell were they going to be the people who molded me into a better version of myself.
But, they did.
Living in the house this year as a sophomore, I have seen myself change for the better. I have learned through seeing other women constantly and persistently putting others before themselves and learned how to be a good friend.
I have learned that my friend’s “bad day” is more important than my homework. Living inside this home has shown me the right way to prioritize the relationships in life, and that is that they should be number one, always.
By no means is living in a house with 80 women always all sunshine and daisies though. Sometimes it is hard to focus, sometimes it smells (yes, even girls smell bad; we sweat, we fart, it’s true), sometimes you want nothing more than to be alone, but you can’t be. Living in this house has taught me how to be flexible, adaptable even. Because a fact of life is that you’re going to be in situations with people who are different than you, or in situations that aren’t always going to be convenient, and if you go through life being unable to persist and get through those situations, you’ll most likely find it very hard to succeed or be happy.
So, no, living in a sorority house is not always perfect and it’s definitely not always easy. But I can’t imagine not having had this experience. I cannot imagine giving up the 1 a.m. McDonalds runs, or the nights I have spent crammed onto a twin bed with four of my best friends watching horror movies, or the nights that we have laughed until we cried over YouTube videos, animal noises, and recounting the oh so embarrassing events of our weeks, or weekends.
No, I could never give those up.
The relationships that have been fostered here, grown here, been challenged, prevailed and ultimately shown me what loving another person more than yourself truly looks like, are some things I can never replace.
You don’t have to live in a sorority house to find relationships like these. But I have learned just how many ways there are that I can learn from others and become better. It took until I was constantly around women who were better than I was in one aspect or another, to accept that self-growth is something I should always be seeking and never resent. I can’t know whether I have impacted the women around me in this way, I can certainly hope so, but I can definitely say that they have all impacted me, and for that, I thank them.