I joined my sorority as a sophomore.

As I ran to my new home on bid day, I looked around and realized that I knew very few of the girls who surrounded me. The girls in my pledge class were almost all freshmen and as they squealed together, knowing that their best friends were all in this new pledge class with them, I felt a little odd and out of place.

I had expected it, but a wave of skepticism had hit in about not knowing the girls I was with. We were all supposed to be sisters and so close, but I was a year older and thought they wouldn’t accept me in the same way they all accepted each other.

I couldn’t be more wrong.

These girls accepted me and took me in as their own, no matter the fact that I was a year older than them. Over the course of several weeks, I found myself surrounded by the most loving women who wouldn’t care if I were 14 or 84. We learned the values of our sorority and realized that we all found those in each other, and I’m incredibly grateful for having learned what a sorority is with them.

I had been worried that they would think I was weird for being a sophomore. I was worried that I wouldn’t fit in. Or that I wouldn't feel myself being stuck between a sophomore and a freshman, but I realized it was ultimately the best of both worlds, because not only one, but two classes of girls, as well as the entire sorority, took me in as one of their own.

It wasn’t about what year you were or when you went through recruitment, it was that we all found our values in common with those of our sorority. Everyone was simply just excited to have each other and I had never felt more welcomed.

So this is a thank you to my pledge class. Thank you for never considering me the awkward older girl or for not including me. Thank you for letting me come eat pizza with you at night, for going with me on road trips, for sitting with me in chapter when we still have no clue what’s going on, for going with me to go vote, for always providing encouragement, and for being my sister. Although I was terrified of not finding my group of women to be with, I’m so glad to have such a confident, loving, and genuine group to go through the process of learning what it means to be a sorority woman.