Alumna Life: Collegiate or Early Alumna?

A Decision To Better My Collegiate Chapter

As I mentioned in last Friday’s Life Update post, I was running low on ideas of what to write and post. Thankfully, I had a little downtime to reflect on potential topics. This one was kind of one I wanted to avoid. Mainly due to the fact that I could say there are a million hard choices that I have made in my life up until this point as well as some I’m currently making on a daily basis.

To me, telling you about all the “selfish” hard decisions isn’t what I want. I’m not trying to paint myself as perfect because I’m a million miles from it. But the decisions I have made benefited my mental health more than anything else. I figured sharing what I consider to be my mostly self-less decision might help someone with their own. Always choose the option that makes you able to look yourself in the mirror and say “yes, I can handle the outcomes,” or, to put it in Gaga’s words “I can go to bed with you.” You have to be able to live with your decision and not lose sleep over it. So here we go!

I realized during the summer of 2013 between my sophomore and junior year at college that I was not going to be graduating in the spring of 2015 like I had planned. I was okay with it. It meant I got to have a little more fun as well as spend a little more time with my friends and sorority sisters. I’d adjusted an planned my semesters accordingly. Fast forward to the fall of 2014 when I was elected into the last position I held as a collegiate officer and member of Alpha Omicron Pi, Lambda Omicron Chapter. The position was Vice President of Membership Recruitment (VPMR). I’d been on the other sided of recruitment since the spring of 2012. I knew how it functioned like the back of my hand. Sure there were plenty of problems that centered in the beginning but they were easy enough to work past.

By the end of January, Lambda Omicron had gained a beautiful new member. It was around the same time that I was planning my last semester of classes. I knew I had two classes that were required to be taken before I could graduate. One wasn’t being offered so I took it as a directed study, the other was one that only met four or five times during the semester. I also chose to do an internship with the Wilson County District Attorney’s office under one of the assistant district attorneys. I’d also decided to go back to singing in both choirs at the university as well – which were considered credit hours. This probably seems like an extremely light schedule, but it was far from it.

I thought in the beginning that I could handle juggling the schedule as well as my position as VPMR. But as the spring semester continued on and things in Greek life began to change even more, the more I knew that it wouldn’t be fair to the ladies of my chapter. Yes, I could have easily had someone with a list of things to do for recruitment if I couldn’t make it or wold be late, but this wasn’t fair to them in my eyes. To me, they deserved my full attention for recruitment events and not a half put together recruitment. I felt that would be what would happen if I had continued in the position with my internship and classes. It just wasn’t fair to the chapter and the women I loved so much.

I chose to step down that spring from the position, but this was only half of the decision. I understood why we had mandatory events and community service hours throughout the semester. I honestly felt that it was meant to teach us responsibility to teach us to prioritize things such as homework and meetings. I knew that even if I stepped down from the position that I wouldn’t be able to give them my full attention between a million papers plus senioritis was going to be bad. Now mind you, I was considered a fifth year senior. Due to this, seniors in this position are allowed to decide between staying active as a collegiate or going early alum without paperwork.

It came with the ability to spend time with the ladies as well as the freedom to do things again when my homework was done. The point I’m trying to make is that I agonized over this decision for a solid month until I knew that I would be doing more harm than good. Sure, I wanted to stay, but it wasn’t good for the ladies I cared for, for the chapter I loved dearly. So I made the decision that I didn’t want to make. I chose to give up something I enjoyed so that they could do the things they needed to do.

It’s hard to make decisions like that, but once you know you’re making the right one… Well you just know. That’s exactly how I felt about it. I felt like I had made the right choice and I could handle everything that came after it. I liked the person that resulted from that decision. Sure, I wanted to be selfish, but I wasn’t. It’s hard sometimes, but we have to learn.