"Check you out being the bigger person"

I decided to start a blog. :) What better day than today. Today was the first time in almost five years the original sisters of Omega Delta got together for a dinner. I'm sure all of Cafe Istanbul got tired of us taking up all the room and squealing every 10 minutes when a new girl arrived at dinner.

What is Omega Delta? Omega Delta is a social club at Oxford College of Emory University, for a lack of a better word, it is a sorority. Anytime I tell someone it's a sorority, they instantly imagine a group of girls having sleep overs, doing each others hair and makeup. We weren't that kind of group of girls and over the years what we stood for and everything that we had built had got lost along the way. Today, I believe we are a group that has accumulated over 50 members, when back in Fall 2003 we didn't even know if we were going to make it to the next year. I want to believe the path we paved was significant. It only took five years for a brave new president to bust down the door and bring us back into the picture. By "us" I mean old school. Apparently, these girls were told not to speak to any old school members. I immediately felt hurt and annoyed, I realized these girls were not getting the maximum potential of what a sisterhood should provide. I was almost offended and in my head I started wondering where would I be without this group of girls in my life.

At one point in my life, I really stopped caring about this so-called sorority, but it wasn't long until my own line sister, Courtney, reminded me why I loved it so much to begin with. Anytime I would get frustrated, she would remind me "you drop, I drop". I remember I always had someone by my side. Ms. Courtney McBee, she was the only reason I made it in the end and she's the only person that keeps me grounded when it comes to all this Omega Delta stuff. It was one faithful day during tap-in (that's what we called our rush period) when I had really just got so fed up with everything that I wanted to get out of it and Courtney took my arm and as we walked up Frat Row at Emory she said, "you drop, I drop". I was astonished to hear such words, in that moment I knew I had to keep doing it for her sake. After that moment alone, I made more effort and became a part of this brand new social club on campus that was riding on a temporary charter, which actually meant no guarantee for a future past May 2004.

We crossed in October 2003. I was named Pucker Up and my big sister was Rebecca Carter. Rebecca was the best big sister, she's the reason I joined to begin with. She convinced me that I could be a part of an old tradition or I could be part of something new. I can't imagine having anyone else as a big sister. Rebecca passed away last April and there are so many days I just think about her because there is so many random things that I just loved about her and the reminders are everywhere. Her favorite perfume at the time was Beyond Paradise, she smoked cloves, and sometimes she indulged in Bacardi O. Being her little sister was the easiest because all I had to do was provide her with a box of cloves. She was buried on a mountain top cemetery where you could the Atlanta skyline, I think of her the most when I see the skyline as I drive through that area in Marietta/Smyrna. I always miss her and wish I had got to spend more time with her, but I always cherish the times we did have together. As a tribute to Rebecca I had Frute Faerie put on my jersey, I also had it done for Courtney. The look on her mother's face during the funeral was so overwhelmed when Courtney showed her the jersey, I still think about it every time I see it.

When I finally got pass my annoyance of some seed that was clearly planted by someone that was trying to ban old school forever, I took in the time with these new girls that drove from Oxford to be with us. Shana, Kristi, and Jennifer, were all of us somehow, someway divided into three different people, thank God it was only our good qualities. These girls had poise, a sense of humor, outgoing, and actually made me glad they made the effort to bust down that barrier between new girls and old school. After we had some dinner, Courtney, Talitha, Tiffany, and Vani explained to them how important it was to actually have this line of communication with an old school member. That line of communication, obviously is beneficial when you're trying to network and really get your foot in the door. I think in that moment we all felt a little old but we knew that we really needed to be heard about this. While we were all saying, I'm sure all of us felt a bit guilty it had taken almost five year since we had honestly had a rendezvous. I'm sure at one point we figured we all know what's going on with each other because Facebook has made it easier to know Talitha got engaged and is about graduate Nursing school from John Hopkins, Tiffany tapped into her inner Cake Boss, Vani got married, Courtney got a new job in downtown Atlanta, Sharon continues to dance, Afzaa has a boyfriend and works for the Art Institute, Fareen works for Dekalb Medical, Ferin lives in London and is engaged, Lizzie is in Pharmacy school, Becca passed away, and in my free I play with makeup. I think today made us realize we can't let so much time pass and we agreed to make these dinners more frequent.

I want to say that thanks to Shana, Kristi, and Jennifer, they were actually able to bring old school back together. There had been such a rift between all of us, whether it was something personal or just simple distance and time, but I really hope this time from now on will be different. There are people that do come into your life and you don't really know how they got there but for some reason those are the people you want keep the closest. I really do love my girls and I'm so happy I decided to be a part of something new.