Recruitment is a whirlwind of emotions. One minute you’ll be overjoyed, and the next minute you’ll be crying because your favorite house cut you, your makeup isn’t as flawless as you want it to be, or the humidity has ruined your hair.

There’s no denying the feeling you get when you realize you’ve found your home. It could be sitting next to someone who a week ago was a complete stranger to you but now is wiping your tears at pref. It could be the first time you step foot into the house during recruitment. For some people, that feeling doesn’t come until bid day, or the days, weeks, months following it, but you’ll know when you’ve found your home.

As corny as it sounds, you’ve found your home when you can picture yourself in the sisterhood. When you can look around the room and see the chapter crying during their sisterhood video and want to be a part of it, you’ve found your home. When you feel like you can hang around in the lounge and not feel judged, you’ve found your home. When you meet the person you’ll make all your Sonic runs with for the next four years, you’ve found your home.

Home is simultaneously wanting to sob and yell at the top of your lungs as you’re running down the row on Bid Day. Home is the one person who you know will be standing next to you on your wedding day. Home is the feeling you get when you connect with someone over your love of queso and Michael Scott. Home is the feeling that you’re accepted for who you are, as you are, with no strings attached.

Sometimes that home feeling doesn’t come for a while. Please don’t get discouraged. Your home is there. You’re there for a reason. The system works for a reason; it might just take a while to see why. You’re there because your sisters saw something in you and want to help you develop and grow and laugh with you along the way. You’ll realize it when you find yourself smiling at the thought of doing some tedious task that you would’ve rolled your eyes at months ago because you know you get to do it with your sisters.

I could go on and on about what home means to me. Home is my two best friends who I love more than anything in the world. Home is Zeta, my big white house on the row. Home is realizing how I don’t want the next two years to fly by, because that means going alum and leaving the things and the people I love most. Home is all of this and more; there’s so many laughs, jokes, and love to go around it’s insane.

You can find your home in the entire chapter or in a single person. Home is where the heart is and the heart wants what it wants. You’re meant to be where you are. You’re loved; you’re at home.