Holly Higgins

Sitting here at my kitchen sink, I type this out while drinking iced coffee and making a list of things to do before the day is over. It includes calling my family, making a run to HEB and starting on homework. Even though it’s only the first week of classes, I can feel the anxieties of a busy schedule and social life beginning to sneak up on me. Even though I’ve done this whole college thing once before, I’m anxious. I’m nervous. I’m not perfect. I don’t have skinny thighs. I don’t have the perfect Instagram feed. I don’t always feel like I fit in. I am flawed in every sense of the word, but I know that’s okay. As cliché as it sounds, I have a group of people that accept me wholeheartedly for who I genuinely am. Let me emphasize that again…GENUINELY. Genuine is defined as “sincerely and honestly felt or experienced,” and the words sincere and honest describe the friendships I have found in the Theta Kappa chapter of Chi Omega. I don’t have to try to look a certain way to feel desired. I don’t have to be gossiping about my “friends” to feel like I fit in. I don’t always have to have it together around my people. Even though I am not perfect, I am surrounded by women who are willing to laugh with me and at me when I do something stupid. I have people that, when I am heartbroken, will drive to my house to come sit on my couch and cry with me. I am surrounded by a group of women that pushes me to be authentic in a world that conforms to a mold all too often. I am encouraged to be myself amidst society’s standard of what a typical college, sorority girl should look and act like.

For me, these wonderful and sweet people are found in Chi Omega. We are a group of women on Baylor’s campus that can look inward at one another rather than looking at outward appearances to measure our worth. We are a diverse group of women who chose to go Chi O not because of the t-shirts, the cute pictures or the events but because we genuinely felt fully known and fully loved the second we stepped into that chapter room during Recruitment. To the girl that’s going through recruitment at Baylor this year, I encourage you to find the chapter that is filled with people you are comfortable being vulnerable in front of. Find the place where you can authentically be YOU, no matter how great or how terrible of a day you’ve had. Chi Omega has become a vital part of my life, not because of the letters I wear to class every day, but because of the people that genuinely know me and love me for who I really am. College is a short four years and the chapter that you choose will shape your worldview and overall experiences while you’re at Baylor. Choosing a sorority means finding a group of girls that you’re proud to be a part of. It means finding a home and feeling like you belong. You only choose once and for me, I am so happy that I chose the authentic, fun, loving, intentional, smart, gifted, strong women that are Baylor Chi Omega. Choose wisely this year and GO CHI O!