Dear Chapter,

Hello, old friend. Here we are again, the start of another fall semester and with so much to look forward to. I have been joyfully anticipating my senior year for months now, and the excitement only continues to heighten as the school year approaches. I know that over the past 2.5 years you and I have had our ups and downs. It has never been because of anything personal, of course, but occasionally there has been some tension between us because I have been one of your “bad” sisters. I use the term “bad” lightly, as I have not done anything to disgrace our exceptional chapter, but rather, I am probably sometimes seen as one of the sisters who cannot always make our sorority her top priority. I am not the only one either. Especially as students at a small, liberal arts college, where everybody wants to try participating in everything, I am sure that this message is speaking for more than just myself.

Being a student pursuing a rigorous theater major with a double concentration, within a department that demands a majority of my time, sometimes it's just impossible to find spare time within a general school week. Not to mention my commitment as a peer mentor to first year students, my leadership positions, involvement in other organizations and finding time to complete my class assignments. So, I apologize if you have ever felt neglected or if any of my particular absences have come across as unfaithful or disloyal. It is important to me that you realize that it is never an issue of loving some other activity or obligation better, most of the time it just comes down to having to pick and choose so that I can make the most of my weeks while including as much as I can of everything that I have taken on. Sadly, sometimes this means only making it to weekly chapter meetings and fulfilling my responsibilities on our Leadership Council, while at times having to miss fun tabling events and hang-out sessions in the house. There are also days when I am so burnt out from all that is going on, that I need to take a night or day (or maybe even a few days) for myself to recharge. I am immensely grateful to the sisters who are empathetic towards my taking care of myself, and I humbly ask for understanding from those who might think that I am just being a lazy member.

Going forward, there are a couple things that I would like to clear up between us. As the “bad” sister, there are some promises that I cannot make to you. I cannot promise that I will always be on time to everything. There will be days when I run arrive at events frazzled and a few minutes late. Please have patience with me, on these days I am doing my best to just be there at all. I cannot promise that I’ll be able to attend every single chapter function, but trust me when I say that I will always try. There will be certain days when my education and my career need to take precedence; so I cannot promise that I will always be present for the night-out photos and the study sessions in the chapter room. I cannot promise that I will recognize every inside joke from those shared, casual moments because I may miss when they come to pass, but now and again it is necessary that something else will consume my attention for a little while too.

However, there are many things that I can promise to you. First and foremost, I love you. I love every single one of you and each specific, special story that you bring to our sisterhood. I promise to always be available to you if you need a friend. I promise to do my best to find common ground between those of you that I don't know well, and show respect to those of you that I may disagree with. I promise to take care of my perfect, little family: my, Great Grand-Big, my Grand-Big, my Big, my Twin, my “niece” and my unrivaled Little. I can promise that I will proudly wear our letters, bringing all of you with me wherever I may go, in the instances when I cannot be with you in person. I promise to promote our philanthropy when given the chance. I promise to speak highly of our organization, as joining my sorority has contributed a great deal to my self-development and my affiliation is an important part of my identity. Most importantly, I promise to tastefully represent our ideals, whether that is behind a screen on my social media profiles or in person within social settings.

I am not a perfect sister, but I do know that joining this sisterhood has made me into a better person. I thank you for that. I thank you for always being here for me to come home to at the end of day. I promise to persist in striving to be the very best sister I can be, for each of my individual sisters, my college chapter and my collective organization.

I love you all.

ALAM,

The “Bad” Sorority Sister