Live and Let Live

One requirement of Panhellenic is that 80% of each chapter must attend a mandatory speaker once a semester.  Hundreds of Panhellenic women and some IFC men pile into McFarlin Auditorium, sign in in order to gain attendance points for their chapters, and distractedly listen to the speaker presenting. 

As Panhellenic Delegate for Chi O, it is my job to make sure that the chapter is aware of the speaker.   I had to make sure that everyone turned in excuses to Panhellenic on time if they were going to be unable to attend.  This is a more difficult task than one would expect.  Even after the excuses deadline I received a flood of “I have too much homework” emails and text messages (too much homework is not even a valid excuse according to Panhellenic) that I had to reject.  I obviously do not enjoy forcing my sisters to attend an event that they do not want to go to, but the speakers normally are more interesting than expected.

This semesters speaker was Marc Elliott with a presentation called “What Makes you Tic?”.  When Elliott first appears on stage, he seems like a normal, intelligent, attractive young man.  I have to be honest, I thought he was going to be just another boring speaker who tries to beat some sort of good moral message into our minds.

My assumptions, however, were soon proved incorrect.  Elliott has a very severe case of Tourette’s, which makes him have outbursts of foul language and constantly chomp down extremely hard on his teeth several times in the middle of his speech.  Through several self-control classes in New York, Elliott has incredibly learned to control his tics.  If he had never disclosed his illness to the audience, it would have gone unnoticed by the audience.

Link to video à http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOfeW9qsNV8

The message that he relayed was very powerful, and he uniquely fed the audience the lesson by presenting stories so that no one even realized that they were learning.  The core lesson of his speech was “live and let live”.  As a man suffering from an embarrassing disorder for his whole life, he says that he realizes the importance of being mindful that you never know what someone else is going through.  Elliott says that you cannot make assumptions about others, and that you should mind your own business. 

Because of his personal stories, this message really got through to me and a lot of others I talked to after the speech.  It is true that there are many people extenuating circumstances people have that are not easily seen.  I will remember to try not to judge others, or assume I know about their lives.

XO Love and Mine,

Kat

Spring Break 2013

The events in my life generally always relate back to Chi O, and spring break 2013 was no exception.  Five of my closest friends (all Chi O’s) came home with me to California where we explored the Santa Cruz Mountains and then relaxed in sleepy Carmel. 

Even though I live in California and have seen these places dozens of times, they never get old!   I brought my friends to my top five favorite spots, which are as follows:

1. Pebble Beach Golf Course
• Not to golf at, of course (college budget).  I love to sit and enjoy the sunny weather and view from the golf club restaurant, so naturally I needed to take my friends.  There is a $7 charge to get onto 17 Mile Drive but the cash is validated if you buy food from the restaurant.  In order to save money (and for the love of food), we ate lunch on the outdoor patio and soaked in the sun and the atmosphere.  
2. Big Sur
• Big Sur is arguably the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life.  The best of both world are combined when the vibrant green hills meet the perfect turquoise ocean.  My friends and I all love to be outdoors, so our hike from the top of a steep hill to the ocean was absolutely breathtaking.  It was a spectacular place to take my guests, especially the ones who had never been to California.  I won some of my southern friends over to the west coast with this spot.
3. Alice's Restaurant
• Alice's is my all time favorite place to eat when I come home.  Nestled in the Santa Cruz mountains on Skyline, its log cabin feel is homey and rugged feeling.  After taking my friends on a hike, we stopped over to this motorcycle pit stop for a lunch in the mountains. My outdoorsy friends ate it up.
4. Carmel Beach
• I love the white sand beach at Carmel.  My friends and I gladly tanned (even though it was REALLY chilly), boogie boarded, and surfed.  One of my favorite thing was teaching two of my friends how to surf in the icy cold Pacific.  By the end of the day, both of them could say that they successfully stood up on the board and surfed.  I'm not too good at surfing myself, but I was proud to say I successfully taught my friends! 
5. Stanford
• One night of the trip, we ventured to Stanford to visit some friends at the campus.  I love taking people to Stanford because it is such a beautiful campus.  Since it was finals week, we were able to experience the true Stanford studying experience (they have weird traditions at Stanford...).  I think that everyone was glad to be able to visit the Palo Alto area.

Even though we did not take the typical college Spring Break trip, it was one of the most enjoyable vacations I've ever taken. Also, as far as I'm concerned, the fact that we did not want to kill one another at the end of our 10 day trip is a testament to our friendship!

XO Love and Mine,

Kat

Top 5 Moments of Chi Omega

1. Bid Day
• Bid day was one of the greatest days because I was finally able to represent Chi O in that Cardinal and Straw!  I remember waiting in a Hughes-Trigg ballroom for the Rho Gammas to hand out the bid cards, hoping that nothing went wrong and that I would be running to Chi O in a few short moments.  We were handed our sealed envelopes with our sorority fate inside, and on the count of three, the whole room ripped their envelopes to shreds, eager to see what was inside.  When I saw that I was officially a Chi Omega, I was beyond excited.  I sprinted as fast as I could to my new home in my red Tom's (appropriately unplanned).  Celebrating on the lawn of the house was so much fun, and I remember feeling so blessed and special to have been accepted into such an awesome sisterhood!   
2. Big/Little (I get my big)
• The anticipation to find out my big during big/little week 2012 was killing me!  While I loved all of the older girls that I had met, I had my sights set on one girl to be my big.  I especially looked up to her, and we got along so well that it seemed to me that it was meant to be!  After a week of receiving a plethora of gifts and food, it was time for the big/little reveal night where I would finally get to know who was the one spoiling me all week!  We walked into a Maggiano's ballroom where each older girl was standing with her Chi O family in their matching family jerseys.  We made our way over to our name cards, and we were told to rip the wrapped gift open on the count of three.  Inside was a wrapped photo of us and our bigs, along with our very own family jersey.  I was beyond thrilled to see that I got the girl I wanted! We celebrated all night and even got to ride a mechanical bull.
3. Big/Little (I get my little)
• Getting my littles was one of the most fun and rewarding processes.  Although it took a lot of work, money, and preparation, the end result was so worth it!  I spent the whole week crafting and buying presents for each of them and spent an unreasonable amount of time trying to make it seem as if they were not twins so the surprise would not be spoiled.  Seeing the genuine gratification for everything I had done for them along with their joy that I was their big made me so happy!  I am so grateful to have two extra special little ones.
4. Mixer Season 2012
• Mixer season 2012 was some of the best bonding I had with my pledge class.  It was so much fun to get to meet people from all fraternities and to go out with all of my new sisters.  Since I pledged Chi O without knowing a single other person in my grade that went Chi O too,  I was so glad that I got an opportunity to meet the other girls in a social and casual setting.  Some of my best friends now are those that I got to know from going out to mixers!
5. Living in the House
• I know this technically is not a moment, but it is certainly one of my favorite parts about Chi O!  Living in the house has helped me get to know people of all ages who I might not have gotten to know well otherwise.  It is so much fun living in a house with 37 of my closest friends.  It is awesome being right in the center of everything that goes on in Chi O.  I love being able to eat all meals and hang out all the time with my sisters.  One thing that I especially appreciate about the house is the new friendships it has brought to me.  I am now best friends with my roommate and suite mate, and I don't know how close we would be if we never lived together.  I also get to live with my cousin who is graduating this year.   Being able to spend her last year living under the same roof has been incredible!

XO love and mine,

Kat

Flat Jean & Leticia- Important Chi Omegas

One cool fun fact I learned when I was in Memphis for Firesides at nationals was that a Chi Omega is National Panhellenic President once every 55 years.  This term Jean Mrasek will be serving as president, which is exciting because she is a Chi O!  Chi O’s everywhere are so excited to proudly represent the entire Panhellenic community for the two year term. 

Like I mentioned in my other blog about Firesides, in order to educate us about Jean, Chi Omega made funny props for the Panhellenic Delegates at the conference to take back to their chapters.  Handing out “Flat Jean” surely made it impossible for me to forget her name or job, that’s for sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_6UMkjxHto ß video about Flat Jean

Jean works at TCU in the admissions office, and when we met her she promised a visit to the Iota Alpha chapter since she is so close by!  As current Panhellenic Delegate, I would especially benefit from a visit from Jean, and I hope she makes the trip down soon so I we can learn everything there is to know about Panhellenic love.

Another important person that we had the pleasure of hosting in our house last week was Letitia Fulkerson.  Letitia is currently serving as the Chi Omega National President.  She stopped by the SMU Chi OMega house on her way to a meeting in Dallas.  

Our chapter’s Executive Board and Cardinal Cabinet dressed up in business casual garb, and welcomed her into our home.  We were able to ask her about her time in college as a Chi Omega, her current life as president, and for general advice about how to make our chapter even stronger than it is right now.

We also were each able to personally introduce ourselves and talk about what we are doing in our jobs on Iota Alpha’s governing council.  It was an amazing experience to be able to speak one-on-one with such an inspiring leader. 

Hosting Letitia was certainly special and highly informative.  She was very candid and encouraging.

XO Love and Mine,

Kat