It happens eventually. Whether long and slow or quick and fast, that one day you join a sorority and then one day become an alum of your chapter. It is a pretty strange feeling to be so apart of something during your college years and then suddenly have to say goodbye to it. Here are some of those things that happen once you enter into the sorority alumnae life.
1. No dues means no problems.
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Long gone are the days of Bill Highway or Omega Fi. No more rants from your treasurer about paying dues on time or wondering where all the money you pay in dues goes toward. Now if you join your chapter's Alumnae chapter, you pay dues but at a much cheaper cost and usually with a once-a-year payment.
2. Brunch on Sunday instead of chapter.
Congratulations, you now have your Sunday or Monday night free instead of dressing up and going to chapter. Now you can dress up and go to brunch with your friends or stay in sweats all day and see no one.
3. Goodbye fines.
This also ties in with dues, but say farewell to paying a fine for either missing chapter or mandatory event that just happened to be on the day you have work or something that did not count as a valuable excuse. For some reason the only valuable excuse is school, and they always somehow know to make these events on the weekend.
4. Public social media.
Usually during recruitment time everyone in a sorority has to make their social media private as a way to not encourage dirty rushing. Now you can tweet and be retweeted year round.
5. Free time.
Once you go alum expect a whole lot of free time in your calendar. Some of you may love this, and some of you may hate not having a jam-packed list of events to put in your Lilly Pulitzer calendar. Either way, you will love it at first or eventually learn to love it. You can always find new things to fill your schedule or finally do that work out class you never had time for.
6. No retreat or recruitment workshops.
As summer ends and school is about to start, every chapter is working on everything recruitment related, from getting outfits, workshops, to retreats that can go from two days to sometimes a week long. This is a thing in the past for you now as an alumnae.
7. Unofficial and unexpected sisterhoods.
Aka, running into your sisters at the bar or wherever you are and having an obnoxious reunion together.
8. Alum events have alcohol.
As an active member in a sorority you can never have alcohol at any of your events, but at alumnae events you can have all the mimosas and Bloody Mary's you want at your brunch or happy hour events. That’s why alumnae have happy hour events (It does not get better than this ladies).
9. Less likes and followers on social media.
Now, if this does not happen to you or you’re reading this saying, "That sucks, I still have the same ration of likes and followers. In fact, I have more." Good for you, but the honest truth is that "out of sight ,out of mind" is a real thing, so going alum can mean losing followers on social media and less likes. It is what it is. You will meet a whole variety of new people who you will interact with, and you will still have a ton of loyal sisters or Greek Life friends who will still follow and like your stuff.
10. Less invites.
You will get kicked out of all your sorority Facebook pages and Groupmes. Say farewell to millions of notifications. Along with this comes less invites to things. You soon realize how many invites you received from Facebook or GroupMes. Here is where out of sight out mind also applies.
11. It really is forever.
Whether you could not wait to go alumnae or dreaded it, you will always have a place to call home or good memories to look back on. You’ll run into an old sister and it will feel like it was just yesterday you were getting your bids together; or you will be texting a younger sister that is still active, getting all the information on what is happening because you miss it; or you will simply be somewhere and see someone you do not know wearing your letters or symbol of your sorority and smile.
