In Me you may have peace.

Photo courtesy of life-love-laughter. Thinkin' about you too, sweet girl.

Yesterday, I was talking to our Virginia Tech chapter's president. Sweet Brittany mentioned Eta Pi is assembling a scrapbook for the 4-16 massacre. In 2007, after the gunman fired his shots, I remember sitting in a white chapter chair down in Birmingham. Our Kappa president broke the news: one of our sisters at Virginia Tech had been shot. What on earth does that feel like for a sisterhood? For a campus? She was alive, but still--we wrote letters to those brave women at Eta Pi. As I'm confident many, many ADPi and NPC chapters did.

Brittany told me yesterday Eta Pi found my letter that I scrawled in 2007. Wow, ha. I remember where I penned that letter: laying out on the roof of Vail dorm (Vail Beach, anyone?) talking to my pledge sister who's boyfriend went to Virginia Tech. I never dreamed I'd actually meet these women or see that campus. God, You are just so cool...

I snapped this in Blacksberg. These are the markers on campus, in hokie stone of course.

Some sorority women only experience one chapter's sisterhood. Some go on to advise and what not, and get to experience a few more. Me? I think I'm up to like, 21 or something.  And you have no clue how being a small speck of an organization that six16-year-olds kicked off in Georgia in 1851 still touches me today.

It was a blessing and joy to meet my Virginia Tech sisters.

I'm thinking about you today.

That Hokie spirit y'all have up there is contagious. Palpable.

I love you.

Panhellenic women, don't forget that your organization is bigger than your chapter. You'll miss the stuff that's important in life.

Orange and maroon.

There's somethin' about this school. These women. I think the thing about this job that I tell anyone who's crazy enough to be interested in this amazing gig is that right when the going gets so tough that you feel like you'll cry or crack or snap--BAM--you step off a plane. Everything changes. Weather, faces, voices, problems, accents.

Virginia Tech University

Blacksburg, Va.

Eta Pi Chapter

I knew I was gonna like it here when after claiming my 2-checked bags, the president and VP said we were gonna go look for some formal dresses real quick. And then while at the mall, we walked into the puppy store. I love the puppy store. (Sister Kristen, didn't you do this with your bf one time? If so tell mine one day to take me to the puppy store to hold and pet puppy dogs on a date. Kthanksss.) And then Brittany-the-pres told me I was scheduled to do P90x with my sisters in the chapter room. Things only got better from there...

1. Lane Stadium. I told y'all I hint to see the stadiums at most schools. KA-CHING! Jackpot: the chapter advisor has the hook. UP. at Virginia Tech. So what do I get to do? Oh, ya know. Tour Lane Stadium. And all the box suites. And the president's box. And ABC/ESPN's box. With the Associate Director of Development and his handy key chain. I was in hog-heaven. Love me some college football. And baller rooms where doners have pictures of their yacht on the wall. Under the pic of the personal jet that has maroon and orange stripes. Nbd.

My new friend Scott goes, "Show this picture to your Daddy and tell him you put him down to be a Hokie supporter and not for that Auburn-school." Scotts got jokes. Right, pops?

2. Blacksburg dining. I've been craving this Athens, Ga. resturant Beta Nu girls took me to (The Grit) for a while. Don't worry. Enter Gillies. Healthy ethnic food and a slightly-hippie vibe does this vegetarian, slightly-hippie (Okay fine: wannabe-hippie) girl well. Cabo Fish Taco? How 'bout Cabo Fish AWESOME. Tack on a trek to Mill Mountain Coffee--since like, I really need to feed my coffee addiction and everything--and I'm convinced: college towns rule at food.

3. Colleen's Caddy. So my (newly initiated! YEAH!) sister Colleen drives a Cadillac. What has she done? Pimp out the inside with speakers, black lights, rhinestones, and a disco ball. This girl is hysterical. Oh, and some of the rhinestones spell out crosses and "God is Love." Only a few people in life can get away with this. Girl rocks it. We laughed so hard.

"Ashlyn. Be gangster. Can you? No, that's an awful gangster face..."

4. Campus tour. When people adore their schools, I get pumped. And this school? Gah. They love it so much. The sense of community on this campus is palpable, and while 4/16 is mentioned some, you still feel how that pulled this community tighter than they already were. A sister led my tour, so another Eta Pi and I strolled behind the high school seniors runnin' our mouths. Gorgeous school.

In front of Burress Hall. EVERYTHING is made of Hokie-stone, limestone quaried locally.

5. Duck Pond. They say it's the cheapest date in Blacksburg, then you walk across the drill field to the chapel to get married (Did I get that right, Hokie fans?) I personally went more on running-dates with Jesus here, but it was glorious just the same.

Duck Pond.

6. Campus Crusade. Back to what I said in the first paragraph. I haven't "been to church" since January. Blame the job, blame the Sunday-travel-day, blame the 15-hour workdays. I am kinda up to the chapters I go to. "Ashlyn, I saw in your intro letter that you like to read your Bible. Do you want to come to Campus Crusade with us? A lot of sisters go..." I could have cried. What a sweet blessing, Lord. Singing to You alongside a bunch of girls I met Tuesday with a jam-packed room full of Your church? Having conversations about You all week? My heart could have burst. My soul was panting to be around a body of believers.

"I'll follow you into the homes of the broken /

I'll follow you into the world."

"Ash. It cracks me up how you fall in love with every school you visit," said Dad the other day. I know, I know. But this one was different. I LOVED it.

Meghan and Brittany: How about y'all live in my suitcase?

p.s. Dear Life-Love-Laughter. I follow your Tumblr, you follow mine. You write the sweetest comments on here. I was in the Sigma Kappa house for a meeting this week and thought of you the whole time. :) Just to letcha know. Go Hokies!

On leadership.

I love when I get floored by NPC members who don't necessisarily wear ADPi letters. It's a reminder to me in my little azure-blue-and-white-24/7-world of the testament that not just ADPi, but every NPC group out there is working to challenge and inspire young women. Times your organization by 26. That's our power as NPC.

Happened at a Virginia Tech Panhellenic round table meeting

for the chapter presidents I just left.

Daaaaang. They get it. The Panhellenic President showed the video below to challenge these chapter presidents. I know the audience for this little blog is all over the place and that the guys have already quit readin', but I do know for a fact there's a sector of Greek women reading that serve on your Executive Committees. Somone needs to tell you thanks. Holding two EC offices in my sorority, honestly, taught me more than any other university organization position, honors society, or even internship ever did. Steering, encouraging, listening to, motivating, challenging, goin' to bat for, promoting, holding accountable, and inspiring 156 humans (now make that 18 to 22-year-old women) was rough some days. But remember that you do it so their experience is a cake-walk. So they can look back at pictures sorority-squatting on a beach in Destin, Fla. and still feel that sisterhood decades later.

So it's kinda cheesy. But worth a watch.

And for those younger sisters who wanna go a bit further than cooler-painting and nametag-glittering (Kidding. But really.) and give that whole leadership element of sorority a go, it's your job to plant a little bit of the emotion from the above video into them. Succession planning. You get 4 years to call the chapter shots. Use 'em wisely.