Sisterly Support

"My expectations for life as a new member have reached leaps and bounds more than anything I could have imagined. I grew up with a kid brother and suddenly as I get to college I have 50 sisters? This was too awesome to handle.

I love being in a sorority and I feel like it connected to me school in a unique way and I would recommend it to anyone. I think of different sororities as a favorite pairs of shoes. I think it's important to find the sorority (shoe) that fits you're personality (foot) and you never want to be without.

I don't think I would have gotten through this year without my sisters. I came to KU knowing a handful of people I went to high school with but never hung out with and a church friend. But I will be forever grateful to my sisters of Alpha Gamma Delta for taking me in and accepting me just as I am.

Before I got to KU, I had a few thyroid surgeries, which left a pink scar on my neck and I went through a cancer treatment. But I don't let it define me. And honestly, unless I am thinking about thyroid stuff, I forget I have it. I told a few people what happened. But I didn't really explain it to one of my sorority sisters until around February. She also happens to be in charge of Relay for Life for our sorority. Because of her, the encouragement of a few other sisters and in order to support another sister with cancer, I attended Relay for Life 2011. Through everything that happened with my illness, I spent a lot of time feeling like many people didn't understand what I was going through. Then a large number of my chapter showed up to support me and our other sister. I broke down. They care. They are here when they could be doing anything else. It meant the world to me.

Words don't give justice to how I feel about my sorority. But what I do know is this, a majority of the stuff I did with them this year, is what I will remember when I am a wrinkly old woman looking back on life." - Courtney is a Freshman Alpha Gamma Delta majoring in Journalism.