Carolina Kappa Girl: Frat Summit Reflections

Its hard to believe that three weeks ago today I was in Destin for what was to become the greatest two and a half weeks of my life. I went into this trip unsure of what exactly I would get out of it but in the end I left with a better grasp on where I am spiritually and how to better serve my sorority as well as over 70 amazing new friends. This has been the largest group Greek Summit has ever seen and yet somehow we became just as close as if there had been only 20 students.

That's the beauty of this trip. We were all able to grow in community with one another and let down our barriers right away because we all realized we were struggling with many of the same things.

The second night into the trip the group separated into men's and women's time. All the women were able to be open and honest with each other with no judgement, which was an extremely wonderful thing. Needless to say our women's time ended up lasting four and a half hours compared to the guy's hour and a half tops (women sure do like to talk).

I came out of this trip with a group of friends who I can count on for anything whenever I may need it. And thanks to Beluga we can keep in touch even after we have all gone our separate ways (thank you technology!). For those of you that don't know, Beluga is much like Twitter but it is aimed at smaller groups so you can send out a message like "Sonic happy hour! leaving in 5 for whoever wants to join" and then everyone in the "pod" you're in can see it and that way no one gets left out. Without Beluga I don't think any of us would have been able to survive the trip (Thanks Kyle!).

This trip came at a perfect time in my life and come to think of it it almost didn't happen. About two weeks before I was going to send out my support letters massive tornados came through my home town. Tornados like these would soon rip through Alabama and even Joplin while we were all in Destin. My family felt that it was not the right time for me to be asking family friends for money when there were other more pressing issues. Except for support from my staff leaders Kitty and Joel and Kitty's parents my parents paid for the entire trip. I will be in debt for the rest of my life to them but I needed this trip!

I needed to get away from Columbia and what most people don't know is I needed to get away from some of the people that I was surrounding myself with. I was constantly stuck with guilt and shame for some of my actions this past year. After a horrible freshman year I was trying to make up for it in the fun department and in some areas I went a little too far. I'm not proud of some of the things I've done because they are not who I am at all. I'm happy to say that this trip has let me get rid of my guilt and shame completely. The inspiring words of Marian Jordan really helped me with this and this verse in particular...

"Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame"

Psalm 34:5

Enough of the heavy stuff!

The rest of the trip consisted of beach volleyball, bowling, trips to happy hour at Sonic, and a scavenger hunt all over Destin! Needless to say Greek Summit was a blast and I encourage anyone reading this who is in a fraternity or sorority to seriously consider going, it will change your life. I know it did mine!