How lucky we are...

[TechAPhi]

I am sitting here designing a special recruitment site for the Texas Tech Alpha Phis. All evening, I have been cropping pictures, listening to music, and thinking about Alpha Phi.

As I look at the adorable smiling faces of the Tech collegians, I can't help but think of all my old Alpha Phi sisters--forever young and beautiful in mind. Amazing women with amazing dreams and hopes for the future. Some of them are now moms; some are lawyers, doctors or teachers. Some I will see again and some I never will. Most are still with us, but some have joined the Silent Chapter all too soon...

Do the women in these photos I crop have any idea how lucky they are? How lucky to have chosen and have been chosen by Alpha Phi? Do they know how quickly time flies? How soon they will scatter to the four winds like feathers on the breeze...? How soon these carefree days will be over...?

I know I didn't relish every precious minute as I now know I should have. Is it possible to truly recognize all that is beautiful, wonderful and special about your chapter until you leave it? Until all the petty, day-to-day squabbles are forgotten? Until you (sigh) grow older? Can you truly ever live in the moment?

As Meg Ryan's character in You've Got Mail says, these questions don't necessarily require a response; I'm just sending them out into the vast void of cyberspace.