I See You, Beautiful

by Colleen Coffey-Melchiorre

I see you, beautiful.

It was a sunny fall day in Nashville when my life changed forever. I grew up in a household that was kind of lonely. For most of my childhood, I longed to belong, I longed to matter.

On that fall day, when my life changed… when I found belonging… when I found a way to matter… I found sorority. I found family.

And I want you to know that I see you, beautiful women. I see you.

I see you. I know college is stressful. You are pushed and pulled academically and socially in so many directions. There is pressure to think and act in certain ways, to be a certain type of woman, to be glitter clad instafamous humans with perfect bodies and perfect lives. There is pressure to make quota and fill total, to get all your reports in on time, to win at life and in all Greek community competitions, to hang out with the right guys and always say the right thing. There is an expectation for some of you to party – but not too hard- and still pull A’s and to be emotionally well enough to never seem dramatic. To be the perfect daughter, sister, girlfriend, officer, employee, student and to have your whole life figured out in 4(ish) years. Not to mention the importance of being the top tier chapter for social and recruitment capital.

I think it’s all just too much to live up to. Some of us exist in a system that’s broken where love happens incidentally not always intentionally and that makes me feel sad.

Sorority should be the safest place on a college campus. The place where you can become who you want to become and reinvent yourself again with the support of your sisters. This should be the place withOUT pressure or worry that you are not enough, the place where family feelings are palpable and love is real and reckless.

I have found over the course of my career that when we love with our whole hearts first, everything else falls into place. The awards, the likes, the quota and total… the winning at life comes from loving each other.

That’s the experience sorority was intended to create – women we can do life with that love us without condition. My blessing of a job is to help you get there and celebrate you when you arrive – what a gift, what a family, what an incredible place to belong. I see you, beautiful ladies and I will keep looking for you for as long as long as you’ll let me, reminding you that all you have to be is YOU and all you have to do is love.