My journey to find my home in Kappa Delta wasn’t all that easy but I can say with one hundred percent confidence that I found the right place for me. Rushing as an out-of-state student, and not truly knowing myself, I was terrified of not being liked by the women recruiting me. Throughout the rounds of recruitment, it was 2 houses that stood out to me. One was Kappa Delta. When I was talking to Kappa Delta throughout the recruitment, I really liked them. I felt like I could relax, and be myself and I even felt comfortable enough to talk about cannibalism during a round. When it came time for preference, I decided to go with the house that I thought that I would fit best in and so I preferred Kappa Delta second. So when I opened my bid email in my dorm room after talking to all of the houses on zoom, a moment that is supposed to fill with excitement and joy was a moment of confusion. Why didn’t they want me? Did I do something wrong? Did I not say what they wanted to hear? I went to bid day and was super overwhelmed and anxious because I was surrounded by girls who were so excited about getting Kappa Delta and how Kappa Delta was their first choice. I was super overwhelmed and felt like I needed to find the mold of the sorority and fit that. Finding the mold and fitting in was how I was able to survive in high school. I identified myself as Amy: the bubbly, happy, always positive person. So now that I was in a completely different environment, I felt that I needed to find the mold. My new member process was full of doubt and questioning if I was truly the right fit for the sorority. Did they really choose the right person? It took me quite a long time to find my footing just due to a lot of outside factors such as COVID which limited my ability to interact with members in my PC. Slowly but surely, as the semesters moved on I felt more and more like a member and felt like I was able to break my own made mold for myself. I wasn’t just bubbly, always positive and happy all the time, I was able to express the many layers of my personality and not just the surface-level nature of it like I was identified with in high school. What truly solidified that Kappa Delta was the home for me wasn’t on bid day, or on initiation, or on the bid day where I was welcoming girls home, it was when I got some of the hardest news that I have ever gotten that my grandma died unexpectedly. It was the first death that I have ever experienced so it hit me like a ton of bricks. I got the call as I was sitting in the middle of the house and as I sobbed into the phone to my dad, I was being hugged and consoled by sisters I wouldn’t at the time consider to be close with. I was given so much grace from the chapter during this time as I went through the grieving process for the first time and even though I was putting up a wall that I was fine, my sisters were all still there for me. They were there for me when my flight was getting turned around mid-air because of the
weather and I was going to be stranded without a place to stay. The fact that I had sisters calming me down via text as I was mid panic that I was going to not be able to make it home in time for the funeral. Thats when it hit me that these girls were here for me. The sweet card and painting that was made for me to honor my grandma was also a sweet touch but, what really made an impact on me was the dropping of everything to make sure I was ok when I was grieving and making sure I wasn’t stranded at an airport with no place to stay. The takeaway for me with finding my home in Kappa Delta was that it took time. Kappa Delta was the house for me to grow into not the house for I was at the time. I have been able to grow while in Kappa Delta and not fit a mold that I felt that I needed to fit. There is no mold for a Kappa Delta. Kappa Deltas are diverse, unique and special each in our own ways. So if you can take away one thing from this it is to find a house where you feel like you will be loved and respected for you are now and who you are going to grow into being while at college.
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