A Letter I Wrote Last Year

Tonight is Preference Night and I am expectantly waiting to cry again.  I have cried at every single Preference ceremony I have seen.  In honor of that, and this night, here is a speech/letter I wrote last year to the PNMs before they made their final decisions.  This is the story of why I went through recruitment and how I came to choose my chapter:

There is something to be said for the power of family. Mine has only two members: my mom and myself.  I’ve always depended on my mom for everything.  She has been my confidant, adviser, sounding board, and personal cheerleader—just to name a few.  When I went to college, I had to leave her behind.  I was lost. I did have my best friends with me, who were, and continue to be, almost like family, but we were all extremely busy our freshman year and began to drift apart.  Without them around, I really just wanted my mom.

I decided to go through recruitment to find my family at school—by Preference Night, I sat where you sit now.  I held my jewel and listened to the words of the women and heard nothing but their unspeakable love for each other.  I began crying.  I never used to like crying in public around strangers.  I still don’t, but here I was, in a room full of mostly strangers, crying.  I left this house feeling more confused than ever.  Where should I go?  Where did I belong?  And then the answer hit me: I hadn’t cried in front of strangers. I had cried at home, my home.  I ranked and signed my card, certain of my choice.  The next day, I received my envelope.  I waited nervously through the revealing and at the right time opened it to find: a cordial invitation to be a new member of Theta Beta chapter.  I started crying again—I was going home.

In the years since, I have had many moments of laughter, blood, sweat, and yes, tears.  Maybe more than I could count in my life to that point.  The women who stand here have helped me to grow and change in ways I couldn’t foresee at the time, even now, I’m still surprised.  They have supported me through anything and have always been the people I could count on—for anything from a ride to work to a hug when I needed it to just a chat while walking to class. But more than that, they have become my family and this house has become my home.  It’s okay that I only have my mom, because now I have over one hundred sisters that I could never imagine a day without.