Being elected to serve on your chapter’s executive board (or holding any position, for that matter) is a great feeling. However, the chances are high that you don’t quite know what you’re getting into. Your year might go a little something like this:

1. You feel pretty legit when you get elected.

The members of your chapter thought you’d do a great job with the position and are putting their trust in you for a whole year.

2. You’re super excited to get going when transitions come around and can’t wait to learn about everything you get to do.

3. But when you see the binder with what seems like a ream of computer paper inside, you get a little hesitant.

4. You begin to read it and get a little overwhelmed, and you start to wonder if you’ll be able to get through it all.

5. A quarter of the way through you give up and decide to cross those roads when you get there.

It’s not that big of a deal, right?

6. The previous person in your position is as relieved to give up her position as a mom is after giving birth.

Which makes you slightly skeptical of what you’ve gotten yourself into.

7. When one of the members of your chapter begins to ask you questions about an event, you don’t really know what to say, so you think "I'll just make something up."

8. The first big event/project you have to plan is coming up, and you’re ready to hit the ground running.

(Or, if you're like me, you're the VP of Finance and you need to start working on the budget. *starts to cry*)

9. Your binder starts to become a black hole of papers, and you have no clue what they are even for.

10. You realize that your advisors are checking in with you and you don’t know what to tell them, so you make something up and hope they believe it.

12. When you have to stand up in chapter meetings, you get slightly nervous that everyone is going to be pissed at you for something you’re about to say.

13. You slowly start to realize that the number of members who don’t like you is increasing. (With power comes haters, am I right?)

14. Regardless of that, they start to tell you how good a job you’re doing, which makes you want to continue killing it.

15. After one semester with your position, you begin to realize this was way more work than you bargained for and are already ready to pass it off to the next victim when December rolls around.

16. During the summer, especially if you are the recruitment chair, social standards chair, finance chair, philanthropy chair and member education chair, you realize you actually have to do things to prepare for the fall.

Sorry, what?

18. Your tolerance has gone down and you aren’t putting up with any bullsh*t from anyone. NOBODY should mess with you.

21. So you start to beg people to run and tell them it’s awesome and they would be so good at it.

22. Elections happen and you’re jumping out of your shoes to pass on your position to the next one who is eager to take over.

24. When you finally pass on that binder, you feel more free than a bird who just learned to fly.

26. While the experience was rough, exhausting, annoying, hard, challenging, and just plain awful at points, you wouldn’t trade it for anything because of what it taught you.

You get out of your chapter what you put into it and no experience is more rewarding than leaving your chapter in a better condition than you found it.

Congrats former Exec board member, you survived!

(Quick shout-out to all my treasurers: I see you!)