One thing they don’t tell you during sorority recruitment regarding why you should go Greek, is the opportunity to hang out with your house mom when you’re a washed up alumn. Linda holds a dear place in all our hearts. This is why.

She told me not to put this on facebook… but she didn’t say anything about my blog

A weekend with my Zeta ladies. I love my new lens!

My sorority, Zeta Tau Alpa, recently won the 2010 Sprite Step-Off Challenge.  A bunch of white girls from Arkansas put together a 9-minute, Matrix themed step routine and won their way to the top. There is much controversy associated with their win since stepping is traditionally a hallmark of  African-American fraternities and sororities. Related or not, Sprite recently announced “scoring discrepancies” and changed the standings to two first-place winners, ZTA and AKA with each sorority winning $100,000 in scholarships. I’m not going to pretend I know the first thing about stepping but these girls are good! Just watch below.  A full article may be found on the Washington Post site.

I remember when I first joined Zeta, the older girls used to say “the girls in this room will be your bridesmaids, your friends for the rest of your life”. That was drilled in our heads from rush, on.

I always thought ‘well maybe, but probably not… people grow apart, move away, and lose touch.’  That was the typical, cynical, hard hearted way of thinking I used to sport.

I went through my 4 years of Zeta milking the experience for everything it had. I was involved, lived in the house 3 years and did everything I could to hold on to the girls I thought I would someday lose. I never thought that three years out of college the line I heard on my first day would hold true.

the girls in this room will be your bridesmaids…

Katie will be getting married next year and two of us will be standing at her side. When I get married there will definitley be some Zeta love up front with me.

friends for the rest of your life

It’s been three years and we’ve [mostly] all moved away, scattered throughout the US, mostly in NY and FL… some in CA and CO.

And while the distance does make it harder to stay involved with one another, when we all get together it’s like the sting of separation never occurred, like we never stopped living a door or two down from eachother.

I was so happy to have most of my pledge class in town this weekend [ally, claire, chels, courtney, jess, katie, kelly, melissa c & b, nicole, shannon, stacy]. I missed the girls who couldn’t make it [berko, leah, whit, daley, chels c, brock, nat....]. And I am happy that we’ve committed to this tradition of getting everyone together once a year [hopefully more once people start getting hitched!].

My friends left Sunday afternoon after a trip to Bagel Bagel. A little while later I had to go to the New Member meeting to help out with the new little Zetas [who were born in 1990] and couldn’t help but to hope that they are as lucky in their experience as I was.

“remembering always that the foundation precept of Zeta Tau Alpha was love, “the greatest of all things.”

Last night was my first official to-do as the Zeta Tau Alpha Beta Gamma Chapter Advisor to the New Member Educator (say all that in one breath). I am really excited about the opportunity to come back to the best experience I had in college and help make it better for those going through it now.

It is slightly weird being there in a “grown-up” role just two years after I was there for other purposes. The girls who were freshmen when I was president are now seniors and I think even they think it’s a little odd. But that’s ok.

Walking back up those all too familiar steps into a sea of girls I didn’t recognize was pretty uncomfortable. My home was no longer mine, but theirs. I immediately looked for Miss Linda, our house mom- the one name I was sure to know.

After a few screeches and hugs and I missed yous, I said: Linda, help me find Alysse (the girl who’s advisor I now am). Alysse happened to be right in front of us. Here is my and Alysse’s first ever face to face conversation:

A: Hi! I’m actually Alysse!

Me: Oh great! Hi, I’m Jovanna.

A: Ok, well, new members go in the living room; right through those doors.

….I start walking in that direction and….

Me: Oh wait! I’m not a new member. I’m your new advisor!

Then we broke into a fit of laughter and my self-esteem went up a few points. I’m 25 and the guy at Sephora recently told me “you shouldn’t have so many wrinkles at your age” but yesterday, at the place I once called home, I got mistaken for an 18 year-old. Gotta love it.