[KappaKittyCat]

I was incredibly anti-Greek as a freshman. I bought into the usual stereotypes: you're buying friends, all they do is party, etc. Plus, our sororities aren't housed and our fraternities are, so it seemed like a waste of money to join a sorority when you didn't get to live in a nice house and eat good food. I joked with my fraternity friends, who were trying to talk me into rushing, that I'd do so only if I could be a Phi Tau.

At the beginning of winter term I switched choirs. I'd been in the general enrollment Chorale with most freshman and sophomore voice majors and the nonmajors, and I re-auditioned and made Concert Choir, the top group, which was almost all upperclass voice majors. Very cliquey. An older girl who lived on my floor was one of the only ones who made any effort to get to know me. I'd known her from seeing her in the hall and at breakfast and stuff, and she'd always been nice, but at this point, she really singled me out and did her best to make me feel a part of the group. It was first week of Winter Term, right before our deferred recruitment, and she asked me whether I'd thought of rushing. I shot her down, but I remember walking past the rooms where the parties were being held all that week and peering through the windows, curious about what was going on. At the beginning of Spring Term, Kappa was having COB's and this girl talked me into going to one of them. Nice trick she pulled: she was stage managing the spring play and wasn't even at the party! However, her big sis took me under her wing and the two of us hit it off.

Flash forward through the summer, when I was dumped by my boyfriend of two years and rebounded all over the place, to the start of the next school year. Most of my friends the year before had been seniors and were gone. I'd spent tons of time that year on the phone with my boyfriend, and most weekends visiting him. I didn't really have anybody at school. I had to be back early to do some things for choir, so I moved in at the same time as the freshmen. This girl bumped into me as I was hauling stuff from the elevator to my room and asked how my summer went. It turned out that we'd had rather similar experiences over the summer. She didn't actually help me carry anything heavy, 'cuz she'd spent the day moving freshmen in and was really sore, but she hung out with me while I lofted beds and rolled out rugs and set up my computer. Over the first weekend, at the choir retreat, she and I became really close, so when she asked me to come to another COB party, I said yes, and of course I had a blast. I hit it off with everybody right away.

I still didn't understand, however, why I couldn't just be friends with all the Kappas. At dinner one night, this girl put it to me in the simplest terms, and I'll never forget these words:

"I love all of my friends, and yes, all of my sisters are friends. But my sisters are something more than that. There's a spiritual bond that exists between Kappa sisters, and it's the most beautiful thing in the world. You're my friend and I love you, and I want very much to share this with you."

SOLD!

I got my bid on the night my grandmother died. I was sitting in the hallway on the phone with my cousin, in my ratty pajamas, taking a break between crying jags, when the president and the membership chair came and invited me to join. I burst into tears again and accepted on the spot. These two ladies who I didn't even know very well at the time stayed with me all night, watching Mary Poppins and holding me while I cried.

I cried at my pledging. I cried at my initiation and at the first formal meeting after I'd spent a term in Italy and hadn't seen anybody I knew for five months. The girl who worked on me for an entire year to come through and experience the Greek system is now my big sis, not to mention my best friend, and Kappa's definitely the most beautiful thing in my life.