Sometimes, we need a little reminder.

I love greek life.

I really, really do. But sometimes it's easy to forget why I do this. It is frustrating to swim upstream against the status quo. It is frustrating when I feel like no one sees what I see and that no one else supports what I am doing. So it's easy to forget. Which makes it easy to have a negative attitude about things.

But today, I was reminded why I do what I do, and just how to succeed.

At 7:00 pm, after a very frustrating conversation with a friend about why they don't like Panhel, I headed over to Olmstead for our weekly exec meeting.

We started with highs and lows as usual, which lead into some much needed venting and sharing our mutual frustrations about risk management in the community. This is a reoccurring conversation at our meetings, and it can tend to get us all down. It is hard to have the same conversation about rules over and over again.

We moved into discussing last minute details about our upcoming event, and worked on some recruitment PR programs. We solidified dates for the new member retreat in the fall and made sure we had the rooms that we needed reserved. On a normal Tuesday, our meeting would have been over. But today was not normal. It was about boosting morale and having fun.

First, we did an activity that I did at UIFI this past summer. It's about reevaluating how we fit into a group, and what roles we play. We marked what we thought we were, and then put on notecards what we thought everyone else is. We then saw what our matches were. On Panhellenic, I am mostly an initiator/contributor, commentator, encourager, and elaborator. It was fun to see how what I thought about my role as President matched up with what the exec girls thought. I think having this knowledge about ourselves will help us see if we need to change anything, or keep doing the great job that we are!

But the fun didn't end there! I then revealed the secret activity I had been hiding all evening...crafting! Everyone loves crafting and it really was much needed for us. Everyone cheered when they found out we'd be painting picture frames for a mystery person.

Before we turned on the music, Leigh had one last surprise for us. She whipped out an old favorite children's book, The Spyglass by Richard Paul Evans. It was beautiful. It was about how if you take the time to see how great something can become and have faith, you can make it happen. My favorite quote from the book was the reoccurring, "you have seen what it can become, now go and make it so."

The story reminded me of how important it is to share your vision with others. Communicating in an honest, vulnerable way with others helps them relate to what you want to do. While the going may get rough when you are trying to accomplish your goals or on your walk through life with Christ, if you have faith, you will get through.

I loved being able to sit and paint with these women for a half hour at the end of our meeting. I believe art is therapeutic to the soul. Painting for one another and listening to Leigh's story helped boost our spirits in this time of stress, and reminded us that we truly do love what we do on Panhellenic. It is important, and we are truly making a difference.

It was so apparent that tonight was much needed. We left the student center together laughing, and talking about plans to hang out in the future. I needed tonight to remember why I love Panhel. So thank you Leigh, Sarah, Rachel, Crystal, Emily, and Brittany (we missed you Liz!) for being my friends and reminding me that I truly do have faith in this community and that I love greek life for what it could be.