Sharing the Legacy of Alpha Chi Omega

I wrote this post for the Alpha Chi blog and I thought I'd share it here also.  Enjoy!

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When the ultrasound technician told my husband and me that we were having a little girl my mind immediately went to thinking in pink…and then red and green. I started buying outfits with strawberries on them (our local chapter’s mascot) and started flipping through my old songbooks to remind myself of the words to some of my favorite songs. My daughter Charlotte was introduced to the Dreamcake song as a newborn and has heard it countless times since then. But as she has started growing up I’ve realized that I want to pass on more than just my love of Alpha Chi songs and colors. I want to pass along what Alpha Chi taught me.

I want Charlotte to know from the beginning what I learned in my four years on campus: she can be a leader and can make a difference. As an active Alpha Chi I saw many women transform from shy freshmen trying to make new friends to bold seniors leading the University. I had the honor of serving Alpha Chi as an officer on our local Panhellenic council. In that capacity I was able to work with my Alpha Chi friends and my friends in other chapters to greatly impact our campus. The trust and support that I received from my Alpha Chi sisters helped me achieve something that I could never have achieved by myself. I want Charlotte to grow up knowing women make wonderful leaders and they can impact the world greatly.

I also want Charlotte to know how important it is to have integrity and accept everyone for who they are. I was part of a large chapter that only grew larger while I was on campus. The size of our chapter meant that we weren’t close personal friends with every sister, and our chapter was made up from women from varying states and backgrounds. I loved watching our sisters accept a student from Louisiana who came to Alabama for a brief period after Hurricane Katrina. By letting her into our chapter for a short time I saw sisters showing love and friendship to someone that they had never met before. I hope that I model this trait so that Charlotte grows up knowing that each person is worthy of our undivided attention and care.
Scholastic achievement was also a big part of our chapter and is something that I want to pass on to Charlotte. Reading books to a four month old doesn’t really seem like it’s advancing her academic career, but I know that starting her thirst for knowledge early will only help her later in life. I am so thankful that our chapter emphasized the need to excel academically so that we could later excel in the real world. The constant encouragement and support from our alumnae and sisters helped me learn how to focus in the classroom which later helped me focus on the job. Hopefully by watching me read books and continue to advance my education she will learn like I did that education can come from anywhere and is important to keeping you a healthy woman.
Despite all of those wonderful lessons that I learned from Alpha Chi, the one that I most want Charlotte to learn and embrace is finding close friends. Alpha Chi blessed me with good friends while I was in college and has allowed me to make new friends now that I’ve graduated and moved on to a new stage in my life. I want Charlotte to know that having strong women surround you who have your best interests at heart is important not only for your own benefit but for theirs as well. With a strong group of women surrounding her I know that she can far exceed my highest expectations of her and she can help each of them exceed their dreams also.
Alpha Chi will always hold a dear place in my heart, and I won’t pretend that I don’t hope to one day share our Lyre with my daughter, but mostly I want Charlotte to take the things that I learned from Alpha Chi and build on them. I hope that she is loving and kind to others with a thirst for knowledge and a dream of making a difference. And I hope that she is surrounded by strong women, like I am, who will help her become the woman she aspires to be.