I have a confession. I am obsessed with love letters. I received my first love letter in 3rd grade from Naquan Thomas and it was sweet and simple -- “Kishshana you are so pretty. I think you’re pretty great”.
Swoon.
I mean, I was 8 years old and knew nothing of love, but that letter and a CRACKER JACK® box ring put a stirring in my heart that has never gone away. Love Songs. Love Poems. Romance Novels. Romance Movies. I love it ALL! Even today, whenever I receive a letter or a meaningful note, I melt just a little bit inside.
Love letters are as old as time itself. When I was in college, I was privileged to be invited to membership in the greatest sorority in the WORLD. During that time, my love for letter-writing was renewed. I loved sending notes, thank-you cards and endearing words to women who (literally) changed my life. But in an age of text messages and Facebook birthday shout-outs, it has become easy to put down our pens in favor of a keystroke on our mobile phones.
Today, I am inviting you to pick up your pen again in the name of sisterhood. But what is sisterhood anyway and why should you care?
sis·ter·hood
ˈsistərˌho͝od/
noun
1.
- the relationship between sisters.
2.
- an association, society, or community of women linked by a common interest, religion, or trade.
The business of each of our organizations can sometimes make us shy away from being active in sorority life. But sisterhood.... sisterhood is enduring. It goes beyond business. It goes beyond positions we might hold. It goes beyond what happened in our undergraduate days or even at chapter meetings. Your relationship with your line sister, “sands”, “special”, “ship” or soror has shaped you and your ideas about what it means to be a woman. It is the foundation of lasting relationships between women bonded by oath and ritual. Those bonds stand the test of time - through joy, sorrow, pleasure and pain.
In the almost 19 years since becoming a Delta, I have met some of the most amazing women on the face of the earth. In my teenage years, I looked up to Deltas in my community and wondered how they could be so dynamic, so high-achieving, so smart, so beautiful and so devastatingly awesome. In my 20’s, I was so happy to be in the number. Those years were filled with road trips and step shows, service and conferences, leadership and growth, marriage and babies. My 30’s have seen so many life changes: divorce and cross-country moves, job changes and reinventing myself when I thought my life was “set”. I thought I had fallen apart like Humpty Dumpty. The support, love, pushing, pulling, carrying and praying of my Sorors put me back together again (literally).
You don’t have to be a Delta to relate to my experience. Whether you’re an AKA, Zeta, SGRho, member of a Latin Greek Letter Organization or of another Sorority -- you have undoubtedly experienced the joy (and let’s face it...the pain) of Sisterhood.
I want you to think of one time in your life since becoming a member of your organization that your Soror -- your sister -- held you up, supported you and/or even carried you across the finish line. We are living in an age of #bosschick and #bossup. A time of #blackgirlmagic and #securethebag. But the lifeblood of making each of those hashtags come alive is sisterhood.
So how can you show love to your Soror? How can you say “Thank you”, “I’m sorry”, “I forgive you” or “ I miss you”?
I am inviting you to write a love letter to your Soror. It is an invitation to tell a Soror -- your sister -- what she means to you. This is your opportunity to share your story of what sisterhood, through the eyes of membership in a sorority, means to you. This is your chance to put pen to paper and share how sisterhood has helped you grow, heal and love.
Love isn’t perfect. It is a verb not a noun. It is action. Hard work. Perseverance. Selflessness. Sacred. So I don’t expect every story to be rainbows and unicorns. And that’s OKAY. Share anyway.
