We've all heard people say they'd die for another person. A mother may put her life on the line for her child, a soldier may take a bullet for his comrade. These are not uncommon occurrences.
"I'd die for you."
"I'd give my life to save yours."
"I'd take a bullet for you."
Dying to save someone else's life is a noble, noble idea. People are quick to take that fall and die for their loved ones, but how often do you hear people say they live for one another?
Alpha Delta Pi has changed my views on life and death, and here's why: Our open motto, "We Live For Each Other," says so much more than one extreme act of courage. Living for each other involves millions of small acts of courage, and kindness, and love, and respect, and so much more. While yes, I would give my life for many of my sisters, I think that death presents less of a challenge than life. Living requires a continuous effort we often fail to notice. Living for someone else, rather than ourselves as human nature pulls us to do, is a rare and beautiful attribute.
Sorority life is strange. You begin by participating in recruitment – which is even stranger – and are quickly grouped with a large sum of women who you now consider sisters, despite not sharing a common bloodline. But time passes and you fail to remember that you aren't genetically related. The line blurs between family and friend, and you love, fight and feel like actual sisters. You develop relationships with women that you never could have imagined sharing with anyone. You love them as you love yourself, and oftentimes more. You see qualities in them that they can't see in themselves, and they remind you that they see those qualities in you, too. You share a ritual. You share secrets. You share gossip, and fears, and failings and things that you could never imagine sharing with anyone, not even your parents. You argue. You hurt each other. But you forgive, and you move on. In less than four years, you form a relationship that is inexplicable to anyone who's never felt the love of sisterhood. And you do it all without even noticing.
Alpha Delta Pi recognizes all of these things. My sorority – the first sorority ever – saw the ability in women to make their lives something more. Rather than die for each other, we chose to live for each other; to wake up every day and accept the challenge that life is not about us, but about what we can do for someone else. Life isn't only about finding success in school or work or family life: Life is about providing help, creating happiness and living for something greater than ourselves. And there's nothing greater, or more beautiful, than living for one another.
It's easy to get caught up in life's everyday hustle and bustle and lose direction of our path. Studying for a test becomes more important than reaching out to a struggling sister, and applying for jobs takes precedence over creating those final memories with our Alpha Class. We get so busy doing things that we forget how much people matter. But somehow, some way, Alpha Delta Pi brings us back. It might be a candlelight at chapter or a moment of pride seeing a sister's achievement – but something always brings us back to each other. We suddenly remember that life means nothing without one another, and that without one another, we would never have learned that important lesson.
"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'" the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said to an audience in Montgomery, Alabama in 1957. I'd like to think Eugenia said something along those lines to a small group in Macon, Georgia in 1851.
To wake up and live every day to the fullest is a challenge in and of itself, but to wake up and live life to the fullest for someone else is the most noble of challenges you can undertake. It's difficult and frustrating, but never forget: We Live For Each Other and for Alpha Delta Pi.
