Growing up a southern girl from north Georgia, everyone was in a sorority. It was a right of passage to do it and become sisters with your mother, aunt and siblings. It was just what happened and for a long time, I said a simple phrase to my mother who asked if it was something I was going to do:

“No way.”

With that statement, I was going off of the stereotype that comes with sorority life. Pretty girls all in a row, partying and, well....no one knows really what they do.

I feel that is a fair assumption. We as sorority women are portrayed so poorly in modern culture. So many movies and TV shows depict what it’s like to be recruited and join a chapter. That it’s pretentious and gaudy.

That is the furthest thing from the truth.

So, when I made my way to the Bluegrass state as a naive eighteen year old, I still wasn’t convinced. But, I wanted to meet people and step out of my already constricted bubble of southern life. I was determined to give it a chance. I thank my lucky stars everyday that I took that chance. That chance led me to the doors of Beta Psi where my world changed forever.

Here I sit, four years later, looking back on the adventure that sorority life has brought me. Friends that will be with me forever. Academic success and advice that helped me get a job and become a professional. I even held a position, becoming our first ever Chapter Foundation Ambassador. I was shocked and still am. I mean, me? Sydney Kuester?

“No way.”

Yet, even now, you have the skeptics: “Why are you in a sorority? Don’t you just party? Aren’t you just paying for friends?” It took me a while to be confident in my answer, simply because I wanted to do it justice and show that something as minute as three Greek letters and a chapter full of girls changed the trajectory of my college career.

If you are sitting with the same questions and are as skeptical as I was once was, this is what I have to say about sorority life:

I am not the girl I was four years ago by a longshot. The things I once felt held such significance in my life are so small compared to the things I have learned being a part of Alpha Delta Pi. I have gained confidence in my ability to speak my mind, lead a group of people and speak highly about the people I surround myself with. I found a place where I could be the most authentic version of myself, able to be funny and carefree, not afraid of judgment or resentment. I learned what it meant to be a woman in a world that is sometimes against us and our moving forward. I learned to stand up for myself and others. Never before have I felt so much protection over the girls around me, younger and older. I have their back and they have mine. I learned what I was successful at in school and pursued it with all my heart, something I was worried I would always be searching for.

I found myself.

That's what being in a sorority did for me. I found the real version of me that I wanted to be as a little girl. I found the version of me I want to project onto the world and this new chapter of my life. And none of that would have been possible if it weren’t for that chance I gave sorority life.

Alpha Delta Pi, I live for you everyday and will continue to until I am old and pruny. You changed my world and for that, I am forever grateful.

If you are worried about taking that next step in your college career, remember this:

Take the chance. It could be the leap that changes your life.