Kappa Is . . .

Kappa is not entirely a fleur-de-lis, national conventions, monogrammed rings, worn out songs, by-laws, membership standards or a golden key. An it is not entirely an institution, a creed, a legacy, and obligation or a way of life.

If you’re going to insist that Kappa is anything at all, Kappa is only:

Moving in for the first time and slowly learning that all beautiful people have imperfect bodies and use mouthwash and wear last year’s coats;

Sitting next to an alumnae you don’t particularly like and being nice anyway, because maybe it all means something to her;

A long, tired eternity of black coffee and exam snacks when you still can’t remember the Renaissance architects or the mossy taproot systems;

Feeling proud of your sisters;

Sitting on the side porch and listening with all your helplessness because she’s lonely and it seems the whole world just fell into ugly little pieces;

Studying for the big exam while your Big Sis types your ten page research paper;

Taking long, slow walks to clear your head and popcorn breaks with a friend to help each other through all-nighters;

And it’s coming in very late one night and closing the door tell someone who has see you through the hardest years of your life that you’re happy now, and you’re getting married.

And Kappa is, I suppose, a kind of evaluation. You grow up inside these elegant walls and perhaps you learn more of this grizzly, ungraceful circus we call life than if you had lived it somewhere else.

You learn that a football player is sometimes just shoulder pads, and that skinny arms sometimes hide a great man.

You learn that some lecture halls are just watery echoes and that there are silent rooms for your deeper rivers.

You learn that no matter where you come from, or who took you there, you’ve still got to find that one small acre that belongs to you by yourself.

You learn that the world is made of people you’re not going to like, and you learn to live with them anyway.

You learn to wait because change is slow and change isn’t always right.

You learn that there’s still a lot to believe in and a whole lot more to hope for.

You learn that love has never been easy and it’s a long time coming.

And if you’re very smart or very lucky, you learn that no matter how big or how messy the world becomes, what is precious and what is permanent is always the same.

And in the very end, Kappa can only be a better way to stumble down the back stairs and out the front door.

— Author Unknown