Anyone that knows me knows that I’m a person who is very reserved until you get to know me. I have also always been under confident in my abilities and questioned my capacity to hold any type of leadership position. When coming to Birmingham-Southern, the brand new environment and group of people only served to intensify these feelings of inadequacy. All of this made it very daunting to get involved in different organizations early on.
While I did take the small step of joining a few organizations when first getting on campus, I never allowed myself to take the next step of becoming actively involved in the organization because I felt unqualified. However, there was one organization that forced me to get involved quickly with weekly meetings and required service hours—the Bonner Leader program. This gave me space to began to get comfortable in a new environment and create new relationships early on. It was also through this program that I met Lizbeth, my big.
Before I even knew that Lizbeth was a Kappa Delta because she was a disaffiliated freshman RA, she was already prompting me to break out of my comfort zone. She was one of the main people who continued to encourage me to rush even when I initially resisted. I never viewed myself as the sorority-type and was sure that I would never be accepted if I joined one. To be quite honest, I simply planned to go through recruitment and then not actually pledge to any house. That is until I walked into the Kappa Delta house and knew I wanted to be a part of this amazing sisterhood. To make it even better, Lizbeth and I got to run home together on bid day.
Over the past year, Lizbeth has continued to encourage me in everything that I do. She constantly inspires me with everything she takes on—Young Life leader, Assistant Director of the Cross Cultural Committee, Bonner Leader, Resident Advisor, Panther Peter Mentor, and that’s just the shortlist of her leadership roles. She’s the perfect representative of campus involvement and motivates me to be the same, even when my insecurities get in the way. I know that I would not have had even close to the same freshman year experience if Lizbeth had not pushed me to try new things, and I am forever grateful.
AOT,
Lauren
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