To put it simply, change can be super exciting and thrilling, but it can also be scary. My whole life I knew I wanted to attend college in Florida, undoubtedly. But when it came down to actually packing my bags and seeing the “thank you for visiting New Jersey” sign fly past my car window on my 18-hour drive south, I felt reality sink in. The idea sounded so effortless in my head, but when seeing my hometown slowly go from 10, to 40 to 500 miles away made me seriously question what I had gotten myself into.
In addition to this, when I tell you I knew no one moving into college, I mean no one. To make matters even worse, I wasn’t living in a dorm, so it didn’t have the on-campus “knock on your neighbor’s door” experience to meet people either. I did my first semester at Tallahassee Community College on Seminole Pathways, so I couldn’t join a sorority or on-campus clubs when I initially arrived here. Essentially, the only way I could make friends was to be extremely extroverted in random places, like my apartment elevator or my TCC classes, which, as you probably imagine, wasn’t working out too well for me.
When I finally got to FSU during the spring semester of my freshman year, everything began to change. The first thing I did was join a sports club (which I also 10/10 recommend). I met my absolute best friend there. I then decided to sign up for Panhellenic Recruitment in the fall of my sophomore year, which if I’m being completely honest is something I never thought I could do. The idea of talking to so many people and trying to put forward my best self in each of the short rounds really scared me. But here I am a year later, writing this article to inform incoming students that it is such a great idea to go through recruitment. I am so glad I did it.
I say this for many reasons, the first being that going through each round of recruitment taught me so much: how to become a much better speaker, how to express myself and how to relate to new people. I appreciated learning these skills and growing in them. Not was I able to branch out in college, but in life too. I ended up in the Chapter Facility in which I belonged and suddenly my life changed. Not only did I meet some of the most amazing women I’ve ever known, but I felt a wave of relief knowing I wasn’t alone on my college journey anymore.
It feels like a family away from home and I never expected to get as close to my sisters as I have in such a short amount of time. In addition to this, I find myself each day surrounded by so many motivated, involved women and it inspires me to become the best that I can be and keep working towards my goals. They have broadened my awareness of so much both on campus and in life. I am forever grateful for all I have learned and continue to learn from being a member of my Chapter Facility. I want to share this because of the great experience I had and to hopefully inspire more students to sign up for recruitment and give it a try!
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