To Find Satisfaction in Being, Rather Than Seeming

(title taken from the Creed of Zeta Tau Alpha)

Yesterday I received an email from my sorority stating that today, March second, is International Badge Day.  Back in college days we would have been required to wear Badge Attire (i.e. church clothes) throughout the day.  This, and my recent trip down south, got me thinking about Zeta days: how much fun it was, the awesome people I met, and the friends I made.

These were in my first year.  We were one of the few organizations to get a group pic with Bob Barker when he was on campus for having a street named after him.  The second picture is my big sis, Alex, and I wearing our ZTA sweatshirts (those little sayings are really hard to come up with, by the way), and in the third pic my friend Emily and I built a log cabin while waiting for Initiation.  The fourth picture is my Big Sis and I at the Spring Formal dance.

The next year was especially exciting because we got to see everything from the other side.  I became friends with my little sis, Emily, during the first few nights of Freshman Orientation, and here we are on Big Sis Reveal night.  I was part of the reception table crew during our Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser for Think Pink Week, and the third picture is a group of us playing in the snow.  That Spring, we started a new fundraiser called Campus Kidnap, where we ran through other organizations' meetings and kidnapped their president, leaving ransom notes (Kaitlin and I made ours extra creepy) with a list of items for needy people they had to get in order to retrieve their leader.  We had a lot of fun with it.

Junior year was a fun one.  I had a bit of a shift in friend groups, and became extremely involved in the chapter when I was voted President.  I took my second little sis, Chelsea (the first picture sums us up perfectly), we took part in many a themed event, wearing matching clothes, of course.  And the third picture was taken during Greek Week in the Spring where we were re-enacting the famous SNL skit, More Cowbell.

And all of a sudden, it was my last year.  My last Rush Week (the first pic is my Zeta family; me, my two littles, and their littles), my last Bid Day (the second picture is of my Pledge Class, being goofy, as usual), my last New Member Brunch (that had some exquisite dessert selections, as you can see in the third picture), and many other lasts.  We made the best of it though.  The fourth picture was the beginning of a great night out with the girls, the fifth was our team at the completion of the Can Competition during Greek Week, and the final picture was of my little family at our last dance.

 This was not the end though, as I have continued to keep my Zeta friendships alive and well.  Here we are doing what we do best, striking an instant group pose, an art we learned early on in our sorority days.  The second picture was taken during Spring Break on the beach of Fort Walton, Florida.  And the third is from just this last weekend.

(photos by e.hunt, e.gerhardt, s.harris, and random people we happen to ask to take group pics)