Since I was a senior in high school, I knew I wanted to do something with my life when I went away to college. I was torn between my previous love of dance and trying out for the school's team or doing something entirely new. I knew quite a few girls who graduated before me that went away to a university and joined Greek Life. I stalked their Instagrams endlessly and practically had my recruitment week outfits picked out before I even stepped foot on campus. These girls I saw on social media were beautiful. They had perfect hair, perfect outfits and most of all, they had perfect sisters in every single post. When I chose to give up my love of dance, I was honestly devastated, but I knew there was a greater adventure ahead of me.
When I came to college, I immediately signed up for sorority recruitment. It was all I talked about and all I looked forward to. Going in, I was told to keep an open mind, but in the back of my head, I knew exactly which one I wanted to become a part of. I was lucky enough to receive a bid from my top choice and I had no idea how much it would change my life.
My letters opened a door to a sisterhood I was so excited to be a part of. I have always gotten along with girls, which I think stemmed from the fact I grew up with a younger sister. The friendships I've made are incredible. It isn't just the fact that I have girls to go out with on the weekends. It's the fact that these girls are my emotional support when I feel like everything is going wrong. When I was having boy troubles, I could call up one of my sisters was a floor below me in my freshman residence hall and she would come running. Next thing you know, it's 2 a.m. and you've told her your entire life story. Or when I felt like my life was going to end because I did poorly one semester, my big was there with open arms and a pint of ice cream. I have always been kind of shy when it comes to meeting new people. Two of my closest sisters were the ones that came up to me within the first couple weeks of being in and took the time to get to know me and here we are a year later still strong as ever.
While the sisterhood is by far the best thing I have gotten from my sorority, it has also opened so many doors for me. I have an entire network of collegiate women who can give me advice on what classes to take, as well as the motivation to actually go to class. My entire freshman year, I was in the entirely wrong major. I struggled with my classes and eventually my grades slipped a little farther than I had hoped. I started to attend study hours to try and improve and sure enough, I did. Seeing that other girls were in my position gave me faith that anyone can have a rough semester. After I started to bring up my grades, I started to realize I wasn't studying what I was interested in. I received advice from older girls in my chapter that eventually led me to change my major and it was probably the greatest thing that has happened to me in college. My Mass Communications classes were motivation enough to go to class. The material we were learning became my natural drive to want to be successful.
After I got my grades up and got myself together, I wanted to start doing MORE. This organization has given me so much, so why not give back to it? I applied for a position and I got it! I was ecstatic knowing that girls saw potential in me to take on an important role in the chapter. With the position, I felt like I was starting to do more with my idle time. Before I knew it, I started joining other organizations on campus that I had been introduced to through my sorority. I was making connections on campus, and even got a job at the recommendation of an alumnae. I wanted to be someone in my chapter that people would be proud of.
With a new year came a new pledge class. I was no longer going to be one of the shiny, new girls and it honestly made me kind of sad. But what was incredible was having a huge class of girls come in and being inspired by them. Of course it was awesome having new faces to the chapter, but I slowly started to realize that these girls were looking up to me. They wanted to know everything there is to know about our chapter, my funny stories, and my greatest achievements. I realized that these girls looked up to all of the older girls, just like I did my freshman year and it was one of the greatest feelings. It is so rewarding making friendships with these new girls not only because they're your sisters, but they look up to you like a role model. They will shower you with compliments when you're not feeling your best and push you to be a better version of yourself.
The amount of amazing accomplishments I've gained from my sorority is what makes me so happy to be a part of Greek Life. What is even greater is that I'm only a sophomore, and have plenty of time to come. Who knows what I will accomplish in the near future.
