[lovelyivy84]

My family is West Indian, so growing up I knew no black Greeks whatsoever. I think my first exposure even to the IDEA of black greek life was the movie School Daze, and the stereotypes of sororities in that movie. I saw that movie when I was 8 and I carried those images around with me for a good long time, thinking members of x org were all like this and y org were all like that.

Then I had my first real job, and it was something of a nightmare. I hated working in that law firm, and throughout my whole experience there was one friend I had who was kind to me, and in large part kept me going throughout. She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, and completely changed my mind about what it meant to be a part of such a wonderful organization. The sisterliness that she showed to me when she was under no obligation touched me deeply, and throughout the years I have tried my best to model that behavior- always giving a hand up to people, regardless of what we share or don't share.

When I got to college, there were no active NPHC sororities. Both had gone dormant. My sophmore year there were rumblings that two would be coming back to our campus. I was still torn because of the stereotypes that I'd assumed for so long were the truth as a child, but I did my research, and was blown away when I realized all of the women that I considered to be my idols who were members of Alpha Kappa Alpha (not to leave out other organizations- I had a similar sense of pride in black women, and wonder at all that we do reading about the history of every sorority in the D9). Ultimately, it was a matter of personal experience. I didn't have any with members of Delta Sigma Theta, but I had a very special place in my heart for AKA.

And that was it for me.

The funny thing was that looking at my line, we broke every steroetpye on record. We range from dark to light, short to tall, slim to 'thick'. Some are very 'ladylike' and some are unconventional in many ways, but we all had incredible ambition, drive and I have rarely been in the company of a more intelligent and learned bunch of young women. I respect that immensely.