Being Greek and Traveling Chic

  

Three Ways to Show your Greek Organization Love Abroad

1. WEAR YOUR LETTERS - The best way to show your love is to show off your amazing letters. I don't know about you but I have so many clothing items with letters on them and I ended up bringing so many with me to Italy. Snap a picture at a famous landmark and send it to your chapter! 

2. Tell people you're Greek - I was amazed at how many people I met that were part of Greek organizations all over the United States. Apart from wearing letters, the only other way to tell someone is in a Greek organization is by talking to them about it. Bring up that you're Greek and I swear people will be too. 

3. Keep up to date with chapter events back home - Adding all of the new pledge sisters on Facebook or tweeting at your Greek Organization shows a lot to the people stuck back in the states that you want to stay as active as possible. I promise that they will appreciate it. 

   Being in a sorority was something that I always wanted to do when I first started college. The top two things on my list actually was going greek and studying abroad. Since I didn't study abroad until my senior year, I felt comfortable leaving my chapter to venture off to Europe, but I still had some doubts.

    My sorority was my home away from home at college and since the Greek life at my school is small, I was instantly active in my chapter with offices and duties. This made it somewhat difficult to feel like I could get away for the semester to study abroad. When I announced to my chapter that I was leaving, they were instantly supportive. I was so happy that they thought it was a good idea for me to leave and travel the world. Missing recruitment, homecoming, elections and countless other events for the semester was hard, but missing the opportunity that I had to study abroad would have been worse. I am thankful every day for the decision I made and I would recommend it to anyone for the future. 

    Once I was abroad, I was dying to meet people that were in my chapter at other schools. Gamma Phi Beta is a huge organization so I knew I was bound to meet someone. I assumed correctly because the first day of classes I met three Gamma Phis! One of them being someone that I was really close to throughout my whole experience in Florence. It only took meeting those three for even more to pop up in random places. I'd see people wearing letters and I felt instantly connected to them. I even met a girl that was a part of our founding chapter. 

   Among the girls that I met that were active in my chapter, the number of people that I met that were active in other greek organizations were countless. It felt like every night I was talking to someone new that was in a fraternity or sorority. This is something that I found very comforting because I knew that they probably felt similar me when deciding to study abroad. 

  Coming back to my chapter with a whole new pledge class and hundreds of stories to be heard was a little overwhelming, but hearing how the new girls were dying to meet me was so flattering. By the time I went alum I was sure that my chapter was sick of my stories about being in Europe, but many girls contacted me with questions about the process. I feel like I actually started a trend in my chapter and I am so happy I did.