Once you go away to college you move onto your own life, away from family. For some this is the best thing about college, for others, we miss our family a lot and it’s hard going so long without seeing them. The easy way to fix this problem is to create our own new family.

Sisterhood is a bond like no other

Joining a sorority gave me 60+ new sisters in one day. While it was overwhelming at first, I eventually got to know everyone and now I can’t imagine having so many amazing women in my life. A lot of people think it’s weird how close sorority girls can be, there’s a stereotype that we’re either too close or we all hate each other but I can speak for a lot of people when I say there’s not a single person in my chapter who I hate.

The amount of times I see my sisters can seem like an overload for one week but it’s that way because I choose for it to be that way. Yes, I want to sit and talk to my sisters throughout our entire chapter meeting, yes, I want to spend the rest of my night in the library with them not getting any work done and yes, I want to go on dinner dates with them and spend any minute I can with them.

There’s a sister for everything

When I say there’s always a sister nearby, there’s always a sister nearby. I go to a school of over 22,000 students and I see different faces pass by every day but I always seem to find a sister in the crowd. The best is walking from an exam I know I didn’t do too well on and seeing a smiling sister's face, or when I don’t want to go to the gym or the library and there’s a sister to encourage me to go with them.

The nice thing about studying with sisters is that every one of us has different skills and do better in certain subjects, so If I need a math tutor, I have one right there for me. Or if I don’t know what classes to take or with what professor, I have millions of suggestions from my sisters. And when it comes to finding the perfect outfit, let me tell you do I have options. Most sisters open up their closets for any occasion and I am set.

The big and little process is a full-on family builder

Regardless of how close anyone is with their sisters or not there’s always those certain people who you will call your own family, your big, little and grand big. Getting a big is such an exciting thing when you’re new to the sorority because you’re paired with one person who will help you with anything you need, who you can ask anything about and who will most likely be one of your first and closest friends.

For me, I got lucky because my big was friends with all of my new member friend’s bigs so we created our own family off the bat. Just one year into the sorority and I was able to take a little which is such a cool opportunity to be someone’s mentor in the sorority. She even calls me mom and I call my big mom because everyone needs a mom when their mom’s not around.

Everyone shares the same values like a family

No, not all sorority girls are the same, we just share a lot of the same interests, values and spend a lot of time together. Our interests and values are so much more than girls hanging out with their friends. We all love to support our philanthropy and other charities in the community, it’s a great way to get others involved and to give back to our community.

We also participate in events on campus and with other organizations to share our interest with Greek life and our community in general. It’s important to remember no matter how different the girls are in our organization, we all share so much together and are proud that our sorority brought us to be a family.