Fostering the Bond with Your Sisters

Every new member has the thought that they won’t be able to bond with their new found sisters or, even worse, that the bond of sisterhood appears overnight. The simple truth is that sisterhood takes a lot of time and effort. Taking everything into consideration, I want to let you guys know how you can foster the bonds of sisterhood in several different situations.

1. Recruitment: 

Your chapter is likely growing a lot during Fall Recruitment and it can be really difficult to learn the names of all of your new sisters. It personally took me a solid semester to get to know every woman in my chapter. To help you bond with sisters, do the simple things you would do with your friends! Get dinner, have movie marathons, and study together. Some chapters have new member retreats before initiation in the fall semester. This is a great time to really focus on your sorority and how it has brought you closer to so many great women. During my new member retreat we had the opportunity to stay at our National Headquarters before being initiated there. We played board games, and played pranks on our chapter President, but in the end I felt like I had grown so much closer to my sisters by the time we left. Post Recruitment I think it’s important to just participate! Participation will help you get to know other girls in your sorority.

2. Shyness: 

I’ll be the first to admit that I hate initiating conversations and I really can’t stand conversations that don’t flow. Whenever I was a new member I had a hard time getting to know people for those reasons. Learn from my mistakes! These women are your sisters. They will love you no matter what and there is no need to be afraid of talking to them. You can’t really notice the bonds you’re forming if you’re not actually talking to anybody!

3. Post-Termination: 

Some sisters terminate. It’s a fact of life. Does that mean that they are any less your sister? No. I had to leave my sorority due to financial reasons awhile back. Luckily, I am reinstated, but it was really hard for me to feel like I was ever a sister while I was terminated. As a whole we need to be accepting and supporting of our sisters who have had to leave our organizations for reasons beyond control. Just asking to grab coffee once or twice a month can really make someone feel like they were a part of something. Ultimately, it was my Big and my New Member Class that encouraged me and really helped me decide that I was financially ready and totally capable of being a part of my sorority again. Without them reaching out to me I doubt I would have noticed that our bonds are just as real without letters.

Your letters bring you together with your sisters, but it’s up to you if you decide to really get to know your sisters as friends as well. The bonds that we have are amazing and should really be celebrated. The first step to forming these bonds though is just to take the initiative to hang out, participate in sorority events, and overcome any shyness you may have. I hope you guys have fun discovering more and more about how amazing your sisterhood can be!

Editors Note: This article was written by one of our lovely new writers, Nikki. Please show her so love in the comments! We are excited to have you on our team.