To my Pre-Recruitment self, it's Open House Day 1, and you're feeling a mixture of nervous, excited, and overwhelmed. Three women appear in the doorway as you're standing in line in front of the house on the corner with the light blue door. As they welcome you inside, you unknowingly go through conversation after conversation talking with to who will become the most influential women and friends in your college life. As you leave, your roommate turns to you and says I've never seen you look happier as you begin to write your notes, "OMG, I LOVE THIS PLACE." You don't know it yet, but you've just been introduced to your new home and family.

As recruitment continues, every time you wake up and see Alpha Delta Pi on your list, your day gets a little bit brighter. Then, before you know it, it's Preference Ceremony, and you start to go back through your notes from days before that read "feels like home" while seeing a common theme of loving this sorority. As you walk into 476 Rose Street, you feel all those same emotions of nervousness, but the excitement is almost pouring out of you.

As you're walking towards the ballroom to make your decision, you start to think about how you never want to leave this place. As you make your decision, you leave the ballroom hopeful yet slightly terrified of what tomorrow will bring. Before you know it, you're sitting in Memorial Coliseum with an envelope in your hands that has your name on it. As they begin the countdown, you feel your heart almost beat out of your chest when you hear the countdown, and you can't rip the envelope open fast enough. Your heart is racing, and your mind is moving so fast that you can't even initially compute that your card reads, "Alpha Delta Pi…”. Your journey to becoming the best version of yourself while surrounded by a fantastic community of women and friends would begin from that moment on.

Those first few days in the sorority will feel like a fever dream every time you get the opportunity to walk through those doors. As you begin to meet everyone in your pledge class, you'll soon learn that 65 people can become a family in no time. Monday night dinners will turn into a routine that you'll never miss, and Wednesday night alpha meetings will become a highlight of your first semester in college. You'll go to countless football games with new people each week, and by the end of it all, you will have met some of your best friends. During that time, you'll also find yourself getting a big diamond sister and a diamond family or, in your case, "twigs." They'll become some of your most significant role models, and by the end of your freshman year, you don't know how you would have survived it without them.

Before you know it, it's May, and it's time to go back home to Nashville, Tennessee. As you pack up your dorm and take your letters off the wall, you'll realize how important Alpha Delta Pi was to your first year of college. With every bag you pack, the memories will flood in, from late-night drives to cookout and library dates, and how much you'll truly miss each and every single person in Beta Psi. You'll wonder how the women of AC'18 who left their impact on you in just a couple of months can already be graduating and how the women in AC'19 who feel like the older sisters you never had could only have one year left. You wonder how you're supposed to go almost three months without seeing each of these women nearly every day. You'll wonder how you'll survive without those Monday night dinners and hearing Mom Kitty say hi to you each time you come in that light blue door. By the time you're home you’ll realize that you have not only fallen in love with ADPi, but it has also become your home.

Thank you, Beta Psi, for welcoming me into this sorority with open arms. You have made me want to become the best version of myself and ensure that I'm making my sisters proud. Thank you for being the most influential part of my Freshman year that I never saw coming. Thank you for a diamond family full of role models that I love with my entire heart. Thank you for giving me two bigs who've not only become my Why ADPi's, but my best friends. Thank you for granting me the opportunity to be a part of a pledge class of 65 women that will undoubtedly change the world. Thank you for being my inspiration even when times are hard. Beta Psi has given me everything and more that I could have ever wished for, and I cannot wait to see how much more it gives me in the next three years.

So, don't be afraid to take a risk, flip a coin, and let it tell you to come to the University of Kentucky. Once you get here, you'll find a community of almost 300 women who inspire you to learn and grow at every opportunity. One day you’ll be sitting down at dinner and a former ADPi will ask you if you love it. You’ll take a second and pause and all those happy memories will flood in as you respond with one resounding word, “yes”. Get ready to scream Halo by Beyoncé at the top of your lungs and be so honored to wear your letters every chance you get. Trust me you don't know it yet, but you're about to find your home.