Values are like a guide that people carry with them throughout their lives. People reference them when they are making hard decisions in life. As someone who grew up in a family full of people in greek life, I knew that I wanted to join a sorority when I went to college. I thought I knew a lot about greek life prior to going into college, and I quickly learned that greek life was not all about wearing your letters across your chest and volunteering for things every once in a while. I learned that although the things I mentioned previously might be two pieces within greek life, what you really gain through greek life is a sisterhood. You are surrounded by hundreds of women who all are unique but also similar in the values that we cherish.
Going into recruitment I had watched what felt like a thousand recruitment videos on how to approach and go through recruitment “the right way.” Again, I quickly learned that no amount of preparation can prepare you for the feeling you get when you feel so connected to a house that you want to make it your own. That feeling happens for different people at different times. For me it was not until the last round of recruitment that I was ready to call Zeta my home forever. You will hear this phrase a million times throughout recruitment which is, “trust the process” and that could not be more true. I did not realize until after recruitment just how true that was.
During my recruitment rounds I talked about things like Casey’s breakfast pizza, my major, my high school activities and more. Yet, what really made me realize how much more a sorority was than just a bunch of girls that were similar to each other was philanthropy. Zeta’s philanthropy is breast cancer education and awareness. I have a personal connection to this philanthropy because both my great grandmother and grandmother had breast cancer. Therefore, I instantly felt connected to Zeta. During this round I got to hear many stories from my future sisters at the time about how they knew someone who had gone through the same thing, which helped make Zeta feel more and more like home. Prior to recruitment we were also asked to fill out a values bracket in order for the chapters as well as for us to be able to narrow down our most important values.
Zeta has nine key values which are, Being Rather than Seeming, Humility, Leadership, Lifelong Learning, Love, Loyalty & Commitment, Responsibility, Seeking Understanding that We Might Gain True Wisdom, and Service & Philanthropy. My favorite value being Service & Philanthropy because of my personal connection. In Zeta we work hard to exemplify these values in everything we do as well as keeping the other women in our chapter accountable for these, which is one of the things I love most about being in Zeta. When looking for a sorority during recruitment I was kind of lost, but I leaned on my personal values to guide me through and saw that most of my values aligned with those of Zeta, which ultimately led to my decision of making ZTA my home. When deciding on what house is right for you, fall back on your values and compare them to the sororities because ultimately those values will be your moral compass when going through the rush process.
As cliche as it might be, be who you are, use your moral compass and TRUST THE PROCESS.
ZLAM,
Ainsley Hiestand
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