Happy Founders' Day, ZTA!

Being in a sorority, in a lot of ways, was like having a boyfriend your family never really met. They heard about what was causing me stress, but missed out on the stories of nights where you sat around feeling loved. Partly, it's because greek life struggles with its identity; my chapter is different than other zeta chapters on different campuses, just like zetas at BW were different than other chapters at BW. While a lot of the big fancy words ("family" and "home away from home" and "developing leadership skills") describe any chapter on any campus, I think unique personal memories create a more honest picture.

With that in mind, here are my top 10 favorite memories in Zeta Tau Alpha (in no order):

1. The month that my roommate bought us a caterpillar so we could have a pet butterfly. She lost the container that the caterpillar was in (his name was Marshall) and started crying because she was certain it had fallen in the garbage, which we had already taken out. I ended up essentially doing a handstand in the community trash bins to dig for this stupid pet. But we found him! He ended up living a very long life, for a butterfly, and was much easier to take care of than a goldfish (besides the initial dumpster diving).

The same year, my roommate brought me to formal on a stick because I was studying abroad.

2. Discovering that my zeta family had never seen Fight Club, and getting to make them all watch it since the month earlier they made me watch a Nicholas Sparks movie. Having a bunch of other zetas interested too and turning it into an impromptu homework/movie night.

3. Having my hair done by my sisters. There are multiple occasions for this. Before greek sing my freshman year, my big came to my room to curl my hair and help me. Another greek sing, Gina did it for me (the girl who convinced me I wanted to be a zeta). My little taught me how to use a curling wand, and Becca taught me how not to use rollers. Sisters that would come to the chapter room and play with me hair. I don't love to be touched, but having my hair played with is probably the most comforting thing a person can do. My big did it during initiation when I passed out, and it was this clear moment of "oh, this person is here to take care of me and she's promising to do it always."

4. Watching the clock count down with a different roommate until the applications for EC were officially past deadline to make sure I didn't apply, because I didn't have the time. Getting the email later that extended the deadline and eventually becoming the Vice President. 

The president and I with our littles. Liz's little became VP and my little became President. 

5. Having American Horror Story night in my tiny dorm room and cramming all sorts of people from all different chapters that normally I would never have gotten to spend time with, and then turning it into a tradition. 

6. Sitting in the hallway to do homework and having sisters walk by on the way back from class, go in their rooms, and then bring their laptops out to sit on the floor with me. Honorable mention goes to the day I had given up on homework completely and was in a burrito of sadness, wrapped in homework and posters, and Maddie stopped to give me a pep-talk.

I'm convinced this girl is actually made of sunshine. 

7. The day I got my little. I had convinced myself I wasn't going to get one, and I cried and cried and cried, and then we had a candle pass and Breanna was my (only!) family member. She has made me proud ever since, but most especially when I asked if she would mind having a twin, and she said no (as long as she got to pick who it was). Luckily, we both agreed that Amber was perfect. Now my family is about to have 17 people in it. 

This is the family I got to know best- my littles on either side of me, their littles beside them. I'm about to be a great-great-grand-big. Yikes.

8. Having someone buy whatever the newest released Harry Potter movie was, and being able to walk into the chapter room at any point during that knowing it would be on. Once a Harry Potter movie was in the dvd player, it would just be on repeat until the disk died. I also vividly remember the last movie having a 24 hour period where you couldn't speak in the chapter room or turn the lights on, because people were serious about watching the deathly hallows.

9. Sitting on the smokers' bench. It might be the middle of the night and freezing, but Maggie and I would go out there just to talk. Our whole chapter knew it was the best place for a heart to heart, and you could go out there if you needed one and either someone would already be there, or someone would be there soon. For whatever reason people sometimes have trouble just admitting that they're upset, and people have a hard time asking if a person is upset, but the bench was a magical place where you could pretend you were just casually loitering until you got to the important questions.

I used this picture for two reasons: 1-It's Maggie and I and 2. That Halloween (we were spice girls) someone else dressed up like Ke$ha and the next morning it looked like someone had murdered a fairy on our bench. Sparkles for weeks.

10. Being up at 3am to get ready for Race for the Cure, and having it rain the whole time. There is something magical about a shared experience that should feel hard, but isn't when you're with awesome people (this is also how I remember marching band). Then at the race, a woman told me that she loved the rainy weather because her wig still looked good when it was wet, and it was the only time she felt like she had better hair than people that could grow their own. I will never, ever, forget how proud she was. It was humbling.

Honorable mentions: Getting a backstage tour at House of Blues, My Rho Gamma reveal, every time a sister (usually my littles) brought me applesauce/saltines/migraine medicine, april reign with Minzy and being team have-fun-but-don't-get-hurt, the day Emmy bought me a stuffed platypus because she couldn't find me floaties to help me swim (and then later her little bought me one too), lasertag night, having a bunch of zeta support at Dance Marathon, every crush party I showed up to in an ironic costume, the day I realized I wanted Suzie to be my big, and the semesters I lived in the section and got to wake to my sisters first thing every morning.