Throughout our lives, we've all seen and heard different stereotypes of rush week and sorority life at universities in the South. The most common stereotypes are that sorority girls are mean and stuck-up and want to make your life miserable. However, I have quickly come to learn that these stereotypes are FALSE. They are completely 100% untrue.

My rush week experience was rough, it was raw, and it made me feel very vulnerable- but not at any point during the week did I feel like the sorority women I was speaking to were making me feel inferior or less than them. I felt as if each of the members I talked to truly wanted me to succeed in finding my home and sisters. The vulnerability and rawness I felt was created by my own expectations for myself. I am the type of person who places an incredible amount of pressure on myself to perform and be successful. I beat myself up when I do less than what I expected, and this self-discipline can be detrimental in circumstances in which we expose ourselves to rejection.

When we purposefully open ourselves to the possibility of rejection, we are growing. We are stepping out of our comfort zones to allow personal development. Truly, rush week allowed me to learn more about myself than anything else. I learned that life cannot be planned to the second and that obstacles will be thrust into our paths. We can choose to either embrace the change or we can run from it.

One of my favorite quotes states something along the lines of, "If you do not like your situation, change it. If you cannot change it, change your attitude." During rush week, there was a moment when I felt as if the situation was not going in my favor. I even had a small-scale Britney Spears 2007 meltdown in a booth at McCallister's. But I wiped away my tears, ate a cookie, and determined that being Greek is not a definitive point in my life. Being Greek will not define your character or who you are as a person. I did not like my situation, but I could not change it. So, I changed my attitude towards it and I could not be any happier with where I ended up. Your attitude toward your situation directly affects the outcome, and while I had a moment where I felt like giving up, I quickly decided that being positive was better than simply quitting. Everything happens for a reason, but you can choose whether to accept it or disregard it.

The lesson learned from my rush week experience is that the only person who can affect the way you feel about yourself is YOURSELF. You cannot be defined by the groups you are in or the clubs you associate yourself with. Your self worth is determined by you.