After a year of hard work, blood, sweat and tears, I am officially no longer the president of my sorority. Just saying that feels strange to me. A huge part of my self identity is now gone. A whole year of my life– done, just like that.
What an insane year it was. I can honestly say that I have never been stretched and challenged more in my entire life. After two years on my chapters executive board, I never thought that there would be a day that I wouldn’t be involved. Well, that day is here and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it.
On the outside, people only saw the glamour, the surface of what it meant to be president. They saw the face of the chapter, getting to wear glitzy dresses during recruitment, running chapter meetings and getting perks from headquarters and the university. But I can’t help feeling as if no one actually understood the pressure I felt everyday. Don’t get me wrong, I loved being able to represent such strong women and everything that came with it, but at the end of the day, it took a toll.
I had eyes on every move I made. I worried about pleasing advisors, headquarters, the university and 80+ strong, and thus strongly opinionated, women. That is a lot of people to keep happy. I prided myself on being a president that women could come to with their concerns, but sometimes felt like it was too much to handle. I felt a weight with every text, email and phone call. I felt like if I wasn’t perfect, I had failed. If there was any problem, it was my problem. If I couldn’t please everyone, I wasn’t working hard enough.
Luckily, I wasn’t alone. My amazing executive board of 12 incredible women helped me along the way. We all struggled, laughed and made some really tough decisions together. We knew that we couldn’t please everyone and sometimes you have to be the bad guy in order to make progress. I am so incredibly thankful for each and every beautiful soul that graced my board this year. My experience wouldn’t have been the same without them.
Thank you to my chapter for allowing me to be your president. It was a wild ride but also an honor. I love my chapter and organization so much and I am beyond humbled to look back and think about all the opportunities that came from serving my organization. I feel like I can take on anything now. That nothing is too big of a challenge for me to conquer. The confidence I gained in myself was worth the hardships tenfold. I learned more about myself and what it takes to be a leader than I ever thought possible. As much as I am relieved to not have a million and one things to worry about, I can feel myself missing it already. I guess I’m just going to have to get used to it. So, here’s to officially being irrelevant.