Pledged

Every October, my sorority celebrates its Founder’s Day. Though it might be called something different, most groups and organizations have a day marked on the calendar to annually commemorate their founding. It might seem trivial from the outside looking in to think about a bunch of aging sorority girls getting together for a tea party to celebrate the common bond of their “good old days”, but that bond is important. 

When I moved to New Mexico, one of the first things I did was join my local alumnae association. I had an instant connection with women I had never met and a place where I belonged in a town that was still very foreign to me. Being in a small town, our alum group was not large and the average age of its members was 70-something, but nonetheless, these were my sisters. The fascinating thing about sharing college experiences and swapping stories with women of different generations is realizing that things really don’t change that much.

Even though we all saw very different worlds and campuses through the eyes of 18 year old women, we shared a similar home in our sorority. We may have had different hairstyles and raided each other’s closets for different outfits, but we shared the same traditions and rituals. It’s also very refreshing to hear from poised and respectable older women that parties, boys and drama were also a part of their college experiences. Teenagers are more or less the same wherever you go. The world may change, but the experience of youth doesn’t change that much. As for my college years, I know that God was definitely walking next to me despite the majority of my attention being focused elsewhere. 

“On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws. And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the Lord.”

Joshua 24:25-26

In the book of Joshua, the Israelites finally reach the promised land. At the end of this chapter, Joshua assembles everyone to review all that God has done for them and every single promise the Lord has fulfilled. The people listening to Joshua’s testament had been in the desert for the last 40 years. Some were too young to remember the times before, some were born during the exodus from Egypt and Joshua knew that countless more would be born never knowing the suffering of their people. Joshua knew the importance of passing down the stories of their ancestors and upholding their laws lest they forget. He knew that his own time was running out to share all of his experiences.

This account made me think of the traditions and rituals of a sorority that get passed down from pledge class to pledge class. They might seem silly or outdated, but they are important to remember. They are what connect us to our founders and the reasons an organization was started in the first place. The fashions of our days as active members have gone out of style and the themes of many parties have not aged well when looking through the lenses of today, but the foundations of sisterhood are what have been upheld. It is the pledge of support and loyalty that allow girls to grow into women who emulate those founding virtues. My own girls will one day have foggy memories of their father, but I have given myself the responsibility of passing down his values. I owe it to Taylor to tell his stories so that his children will never forget how important it was for him to put God before everything else. Is there someone in your life that you need to share your faith with today so it will continue long after we are all gone?

Love, Molly

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