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As Meradith (another one of my besties from my pledge class) & I were making plans to go to Dothan for the wedding, I got to thinking about how blessed I am to be a part of such an amazing organization, Alpha Gamma Delta, that led me to all of these great girls! However, I never planned on being a 'sorority girl'.....
Growing up, I had only a few close girlfriends. Mainly because girls are MEAN. We all know that! Hateful, conniving & spiteful. How mean were they? I got dead roses around my car on my 16th birthday! I will admit though, I've been that mean, hateful, conniving, spiteful girl, too! Needless to say, when I got that 'Go Greek' pamphlet in the mail the summer before I moved to Troy, I was not impressed at all. There was no way I was going to be a sorority girl. That was WAY out of my league. The only thing I knew about sororities is what I had seen on TV shows & movies...the girls were rich, their Daddies payed for everything, they wore the best clothes, they were preppy, drove convertibles...they were everything I was not. I played softball, drove an old Honda, I loved wearing old jeans & t-shirts & deer hunted like it was nobody's business. I often got to school late during deer season because I'd hunt with my Daddy in the mornings. I was NOT going to fit in with those girls! And I mean, who wants to 'pay' for their friends anyways?
The deadline had come & gone to sign up for RUSH when Mama mentioned that I should try it. Ummmmm no. She said that even if I didn't join a sorority, the experience would be good for me & I'd meet new friends along the way. The only other person I knew in Troy was Shea, my roommate, and she was an Alpha Gam. So, unless I was going to sit home alone all the time, I thought I had better go make some friends! I swallowed my pride & signed up for rush.
If you've never gone through rush, let me tell you it's kind of intimidating. Troy has 5 sororities & we spent 4 days going through each house & talking to girls from all the sororities. From the first day, Alpha Gam was my favorite. Their house felt like home (ironically, one of their songs during rush was 'Feels Like Home') & the girls were so 'normal'. I told one of the other sororities that I wanted to be an Alpha Gam. Was I not supposed to say that? Oops!!!!! On Bid Day, I opened my card & had an invitation to be a member of the Alpha Gams....I was so excited! Crazy how things can change in the blink of an eye, huh?
Over the next 4 years, I made some of the absolute best friends that I could have ever asked for. They weren't anything like the girls I had seen on TV, they were just like me, in some aspects...not many of them hunted, some of them did come from a lot of money & Meradith did, in fact, appear preppy with her sweater tied around her shoulders!! I spent almost every single one of my Troy days with one or more of my sorority sisters. From swaps to chapter meetings to peprallies to those LONG days leading up to Homecoming week to study hall, we were always together. We did our homework together... I remember studying for an anatomy test while Casey made a little blue hand puppet & made a song with a bugle call, or something of that nature. I thought seriously about changing my nursing major to elementary education!!! We cooked dinner together, we drove each other to class to avoid searching for HOURS for a parking spot & we were brutally honest with each other. We were there for each other during first dates & break ups. We each shared a love/hate for those LONG nights during Spirit Week. We would go to each others parents' houses for the weekends & meet their families & see where they grew up. Some if them joked that they needed their passport to go to Maplesville for the Friday night football games!
Had I known what a blessing these girls were going to be to my life, I wouldn't have been so apprehensive about going through RUSH. Look at what I would have missed out on! The girls that I met through Alpha Gam were the same girls that I called the night Hunter proposed & they were the girls that came to my wedding. My Daddy & I spent one of my summer days at the Alpha Gam house building new wooden letters for the front of the house. I still giggle when I see squirrel statues or stuffed animals (the squirrel is Alpha Gam's mascot) & anything red, buff & green (Alpha Gam's colors) makes my heart smile. My membership pen was on my bouquet the day I got married...
Goodness, how generous is God?!?!?
How generous is God that he has given me these few
and special women who are the true friends of my
heart.
How he must love me that He has let us find each
other upon this crowded earth.
We are drawn together as if by some mystical force.
We recognize each other at once.
There is no blood relations between us, no common
family history-- yet there are no barriers of age or
even background
Older, younger, richer, poorer--no matter.
We have come together in this special moment of time,
and the sense of unity which we feel will last
throughout eternity.
How generous is God that He has given me so many
women who add flavor, variety, delight.
My life would be the poorer without them
Yet surely this is The Lord's true concern for us--His
Children-- that He may lead us to those rare and
special friends.
The sisters who call out to us from the crowds--who
hold fast through trial, triumph, and long separations.
The sisters with whom one's heart feels joyfully
at home.
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