Fall recruitment is in full swing all over the nation. Last year, I wrote a blog post with tips on how to handle recruitment from a potential new member and recruiter stand point. Now, I want to justify a rumor about sororities that most non-greek people make fun of. When you join your chapter, you are told that your sisterhood is a lifetime. Most people laugh and would say "You are paying for friends and that it's only 4 years. When will you see these people again?" Well, I'm going to let you in on a little secret... it's not true to an extent. It's how you make your journey with your chapter and what you want to do after you graduate.
I would say that most people think that their true sisters are from their alma mater, but that also isn't true. Sororities have sisters all over the USA. Heck even sisters from Kappa Kappa Gamma traveled to the UK to chant a ritual for a Meghan Markle, their fellow sister as she rode down the streets. When I first moved out to Denver, I was still trying to find a place to meet people. I reached out to the Denver Alumni chapter of Delta Zeta and went to a happy hour. From there, I met so many girls not from just Denver, but from the South and West. Not only did I go to events to meet more alumni, but I asked how I could get involved. A Panhellenic Delegate position was open, so I applied. Now, I'm going to meetings once a month as well as the Communications (website) Chair for the Denver Area Alumni Panhellenic.
As I continued down this path of getting involved, I was hearing other girls talking about how they were advising certain exec members for the two chapter out here in Colorado. I immediately asked around on how I could get involved with it and I'm now an advisor for both chapters: Alumni Relations Advisor and Recruitment Advisor.
As I watched my advisee for recruitment lead her sisters through the recruitment practice, I just took a pause for a moment and took it all in. I never thought I would see myself on this side after I graduated. I thought sorority was behind me and that 4 years was all I had to make a real difference with my chapter. It's actually after those 4 years though that really make a difference into the type of sorority woman you will be. I've met so many other women from other chapters as well as from my own. Some of these woman have dedicated their time for 50 years to their chapter and they wouldn't trade it for the world. I would like to think I could give 50+ year to my chapter and doing something amazing that others have done before me.
So awhile on this journey of finding your chapter or if you already have one, don't think about just 4 years. Think about the next 10 or more. Who will standing by your side? How to stay connected with a chapter that has given you an experience of a lifetime? Sisterhood isn't 4 years, it's a lifetime- if you want it to be.