When I joined a sorority, I wasn't sure of what to expect. You hear everything. You hear about hazing, about mean girls, about cliques. You envision many things. Many of these things are negative. The painting of fake perfection. The mean girls. The girls who seem to have it together. The party girls. Drugs, alcohol, and frat parties. These words leak into your thoughts. Suddenly you think this may be a standard that you may not live up to or perhaps it's not something that you care to portray.

You're not skinny enough. Your clothes aren't good enough. Your family's not rich enough. Your hair doesn't fall in perfect curls. You don't have tanned skin.

Everything you've thought, everything you've been told, and everything you just read is entirely untrue.

The girls that I have the privilege to call my sisters are the most genuine, beautiful, intelligent, and strong people that I have ever known. What was a group of complete strangers has turned into my family. I gained 115 sisters. I have gained girls to study with, to shop with, to grab lunch with. I have gained girls to cry with. Girls that remind you of what they see in you when someone breaks your heart. Girls that offer help when you're sick. Girls that care. Girls that find you a tutor, girls that push you to get to the gym, girls that throw birthday parties for you. Girls to laugh with, to call every day... even though you just saw them. Girls to have fun with. To dance with. To share clothes with. These same girls will be my bridesmaids and my lifelong best friends.

Everything you thought you knew about sorority girls is wrong. Yes we like pictures and we like themed parties with our friends, we like to wear our letters, and we like to get dressed up for date parties. We also spend countless hours in the library in order to keep our grades up. We volunteer. We take pride in our national philanthropy. We donate coats when it's cold, we send care packages to the military, we take cards to nursing homes. But we do all of this because we want to. The friendships I have made are irreplaceable. I've never felt more welcome, more at home, or more loved.

People are people, "sorority" girl or not. That word doesn't define an entire group of women. The word "sorority" does not change people, it does not define someone, it does not persuade one to act a certain way.

I can say this from experience because my sorority has given me more gifts than I could imagine.