"Love Keeps No Record of Wrongs"

"They're the people you can share your secrets with, cry with, laugh with, and just be yourself with. They don't judge you or make you change. They accept you exactly as you are. They look at you and they see a great person, one they love spending time with. You all share something in common and are tied together by memories, tears, laughs & smiles. You're tied together by love for the other. Sisterhood is the greatest thing in the world. I find my time with my sisters the best times of my life. My sisters are my heart, my soul, my fun, my laughter, my tears, my love and my life" ~ Unknown

Sisterhood.. Friendship.. Family. These are three words that within our fraternity are so closely tied together. We often call ourselves a family and we often say we have a great sisterhood and sometimes we even say it is something that we struggle with. The truth though is that with every family comes feuds and with every sister comes silly fights. This is part of what brings a family together, but also the same thing that will tear us apart.

We are coming to a point in the academic year that we are beginning to get exhausted with not only school, but often times AOII. We have been working hard, as well as spending a lot of time together. We are all trying to make our chapters better and we all have lives outside of AOII. We sometimes get exhausted and sometimes we get burnt out. Sometimes we make one another cry and other times we make each other laugh. This is what being part of a family is, but sometimes we forget that being part of a great sisterhood can also mean occasional struggles – some big and some minor. We ask you to join and often forget to tell you that there may be personalities that clash and women that don’t get along. Sometimes we don’t get along because we are so much alike and we are so comfortable with each other that it causes us to fight.

We have to remember that this is ok. We need to stop keeping records of wrong doings. We have to show patience and tolerance to each other and not easily be angered by our past. We have to stop judging. We have to forgive. We have to forget and we have to move past yesterday’s mistakes. It sometimes seems so much easier to hold onto resentments than to forgive someone, but it is so much harder to move forward when you don’t forgive. Lack of forgiveness can break up friends and families. It can also bring a community, as well as an organization down. It takes so much more work to be angry, then it does to let go. But at the end of the day, Love is forgiveness.

When was the last time that you asked a sister who you often don’t get along with how she was doing? We forget that often times there are things outside of AOII that are brought to our sisterhood because it is where we can express or hide our feelings. We have a safety net within the group because we know that they will still be our sisters at the end of the day. We as members need to remember that when someone is distant with you, reflecting discredit on our fraternity or maybe causing disharmony within the chapter, it may be because of something so much deeper than just a clash of a personality. It may because of issues they are facing in the outside world.

Our sisters are the women that promised to be there until the end. We promised to share all of our joys and disappointments. We restrain ourselves from being judgmental and also show tolerance and patience with each other. We don’t allow college clannishness to come in the way of our fraternity and we should never be exclusive within our university. We show love among all of our members. We are tied together by a common bond. Your sisters are your heart, soul, your fun, laughter and tears. They are your life and once they become your sister they are your sister forever and should never leave our fraternity because of formal oath that we made to one another. We need to remind each other daily what love is. Though it may not always be easy it is always worth it at the end of the day.

Roses, Molly