Over the summer, I was researching my senior thesis and reading a LOT of race studies books and related texts. And I started to doubt myself, both as a scholar and as an aspirant for membership in Cookie. After all, what business did a white girl like me have doing work on racial issues? What business did a white girl like me have trying to get into a black sorority? I don’t really want to get into all this here, but I went into a period of this that wasn’t good. At this time, I wondered if perhaps, since I knew that I really wanted the sorority experience, if perhaps I should look into multicultural orgs, which I had learned about on GC. I looked at some websites, and spoke online with a few people, but again, I was not feeling it at all. I liked the sororities I learned about – some I even liked a lot – but the rich history of Cookie was something that was very important to me, and these orgs, while I know they are building it, just don’t have it yet. Also, none of these orgs had chapters at my North Avenue Trade School, so it was hard to get a real sense of what these groups were like. As I learned more about these sororities – and one in particular, which I’ll call “Chocolate-Chip Ice Cream”, was exciting and interesting, but I also felt somewhat resigned. I knew if I went this route I would always wonder about Cookie. Ice Cream, while delicious, melts over time – it doesn’t have the same staying power as a good cookie (even if you can give them both the same toppings).
I finally spoke with my thesis advisor – the professor who was a Cotton Candy member – about my questions regarding academia, as it was really getting me down, and that helped considerably. She also directed me to a couple of essays written by white women in race-related studies, and those essays helped me work out my guilt issues, both with academics and with pursuing Cookie. I was back on track (in some ways, more on it than ever before) by the end of summer, ready to begin my senior year.
Spring semester of my senior year, I had begun looking into alumnae chapters of Cookie in my area and wondering how I could get in touch with them. It didn’t look like the Cookie chapter at North Avenue Trade School would be having a Rush meeting before I was graduating in May. Then things starting happening like crazy, and –
I made it!!! I was initiated into membership in Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated on April 5th, 2006.
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^Two of my wonderful LSs and me at my graduation from Georgia Tech one month later :)
The other sororities (in order of appearance): Cheesecake - Alpha Chi Omega, Fried Cheesecake - Chi Omega Tau, Cotton Candy - Alpha Kappa Alpha, Cupcake - Zeta Phi Beta, Cobbler - Sigma Gamma Rho, Chocolate-Chip Ice Cream - Theta Nu Xi
