My advisors told me I couldn’t major in Sigma. And they were
right. On paper, I could not declare Sigma as my major but (and this is about
to get REALLY corny) in my heart I could. I wanted and still want to see my
chapter succeed. I dedicated a lot of time in my collegiate years to this
organization so I was extremely excited to take my next step into the
organization.
I had to give back to the organization that gave me so much.
When I think about it Tri sigma has given my life so much meaning. I now
understand my full potential, my confidence has sky rocketed, and all of my
friends and fondest college memories contain sisters. How could I ever give
back to such a wonderful organization?
I started small. Literally, super small. I paid my alumnae
dues, which were $65 FOR THE YEAR. I used to pay $85 a month in college. That’s a little backwards don’t ya think?
Regardless, it was one small step for the national organization, one giant leap
into my after life of Sigma.
It’s really weird going from maintaining three jobs, attending
to school full time, being a leader in a sorority, and probably a plethora of
other tasks to just working. That’s it. The rest of the time is mine. I choose
what to do with it.
Just so were on the same page, alumnae life is way chill
y’all. Like, we have it made. We have two meetings a year and the rest of our
time together consist of happy hours, service projects, BINGO, and a variety of
other fun sisterhood activities. Most of our business is conducted in a
Facebook group.
I paid my dues and I think I attended one event because I won’t
lie, the engagement in our alumnae chapter wasn’t SUPER high by any means. It’s
still a fairly new chapter as well. Are
you catching a trend here? I wasn’t exactly jumping at the bits to go to an
event, so I found other Sigma things to keep myself busy.
I became a national volunteer and signed up to be the
Scholarship advisor for Theta Epsilon. I essentially over saw their grades and
educational opportunities. With this position I was able to see the growth of the
chapter I helped develop. I was fortunate enough to attend an education
institute with our collegiate representative. Honestly, I thought this would be
a bunch of mumbo jumbo about scholarships and programs from Sigma to help girls
get their grades up but (wo)MAN. I have never learned so many life lessons in
one conference. It’s amazing how even after college I can still take away from
these collegiate experiences. Literally, one of the speakers was an etiquette
instructor. We took an etiquette course. No way in hell would I have signed
myself up for that on my own but Tri Sigma values holding women to a higher
standard and they felt it was important for us to know. I met some of the most
amazing people along the way; even friends that appeared again later on in my
alumnae life.
I recently resigned from my scholarship advisor position to
focus more on my current position as the alumnae chapter president. Once again,
another sister saw potential in me and thought I’d fit the role. I was voted in
and this has definitely been my most challenging alumnae roll. It’s challenging
to be involved with something when it’s not constantly in your face. I get it,
I really do.
All of these positions are great and have really taught me a
lot about myself that I don’t think I would’ve ever known had I not pushed
myself to be the ideal candidate for the position I was serving. I never
realized how much of a go-getter attitude I’ve developed and I have all of my
sisters to thank for that. A lot of these realizations came to light when I was
selected to attend Tri Sigma’s Labyrinth Leadership Experience. I had applied
for this when I first joined sigma and was not selected. I’m not sure why but I
was itching to apply again and I thought that was so dumb. They didn’t pick me
the first time. Why would they pick me now? Well the gods of Sigma land
assembled and gave me one of the most reaffirming and rewarding experience my
life has ever seen. You put 20 women in a room and the only things they know
they have in common is the fact that we share an eternal bond and you’re going
to walk out with some of the best memories and highest string of emotions you’ve
ever seen.
Sigma has five values that are highlighted the most in our
sisterhood and those are faith, hope, wisdom, love, and power. To most they
sound like buzzwords, but to me, they are little pearls of inspiration. Labyrinth really dived into how we can live
our values in our daily life. Look at me now. I’ve been out of college for 2
years and I took all the information they gave us and soaked it in like a
sponge.
This program has launched my sigma after life career into
hyper drive. I want to know how I can help provide these experiences for women
in the future. I see how fulfilling and, honestly, mind blowing, some of these
opportunities are and any women would be so lucky to experience this awesome
sisterhood.
This is proof in the making that sorority life lives WAY
beyond college (to college and beyond…). Fraternal organizations are all about
empowering each other to chase our dreams and know they have someone supporting
them along the way.
Thank you Tri Sigma for instilling long lasting hope in my mind, showing me compassion, giving me my future bridesmaids, and guiding me to access my full potential.
I'm not crying, you're crying.
Know it's never too late to join and I hope my journey has inspired you, even if its in the smallest way.
P.S. This is the end of the series. If there is more in the after life, I can't say I've reached that point yet, but when I do you can expect a blog post.
Post a Comment