Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and pretty much every social media out there, practically imploded at the constant stream of updates, pictures, tweets, and collages that kept spooling in over the course of those two days.  And with good reason, too.  The women who belong to these respective organizations, along with countless other women who make up the membership of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated, have a deep personal relationship with one another and the purpose of their organizations.

Scholarship. Service. Sisterhood.

It doesn’t stop once you graduate from college, either. Graduate chapters abound, enabling these Black Greeks to continue in service, scholarship and sisterhood as they navigate life after college.  Not only does graduate membership help honor ones commitment to an organization, but it is a safe haven as well.  Whenever I have relocated from one city to another, I know that if I find a graduate chapter of AKA, I will be welcomed without hesitation.

If anyone has watched Spike Lee’s iconic movie, “School Daze” or caught any of the earliest episodes of the Cosby show spin-off “A Different World”, you might have a general, albeit hyperbolized, idea of Black Greek Life on campus.  Historically speaking, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated was the first sorority established for Black women on the campus of Howard University in 1908.  Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated were founded in 1913, 1920, and 1922 respectively.  I’m not going to get into the who’s, why’s, and what for’s that cause the formation of several different sororities, but suffice it to say, as a result, certain stereotypes have emerged.

Certainly, those of us Sister Greeks can poke fun at ourselves and at one another, especially when it’s done in a light hearted way.  There are other times, when ladies can take themselves a bit too seriously, and feelings get hurt.  I’m firmly a member of the first camp, and so are the women with whom I surround myself.  That fact was never made more clear than on January 13th and January 15th of this year.

This is a picture of me and the group of ladies I rolled with during college.  Dara and Cheri were my freshman and sophomore roommates, respectively.  I met Courtney and Leasa when we were 13 and at camp together. Roberta and Mia I met as a freshman and we went on to remain friends well into adulthood.

R to L: Leasa, Cheri, Dara, Hilary, Courtney, Roberta and Mia

I look at this picture and realize this was one of the last times we all were together before we became members of our respective sororities.  Right to left, it breaks down like this — AKA, DST, AKA, AKA, DST, DST, and down in front, DST.  And please, if you have some comment about who chose what based on their skin color, or how easy it is to pick me out of the crowd, let me be the first to tell you:

4. Keep that shiggity to yourself.

Despite all of the stereotypes and perceived animosity or throwing of shade and hateration that surrounds the two organizations, I look at this picture and think, “Not in this little pocket.” Sure, over the years, we have grown apart through distance, work, relationships.  But we keep up with one another, renewing friendships and establishing others.  This pictures makes me happy and a little sad.  Happy because those smiles are so genuine. We were having a great night. We were young and blissfully unaware that there things much harder than mid-terms and summer internships coming down the pike.  Ignorance is bliss, right?

In any event, after talking about friendships and the people who belong in your life will come and stay, seeing this picture was a visual representation of that idea.  As I said, DST celebrated their Founder’s Day on January 13th and as it was their centennial year, the volume of messages and photos was immense and not unexpected.

I sent personal messages to a few of my sister greeks with whom I am particularly close, but as you know, I’m not given to status updates.  I let other people update their statuses with well wishes and shout outs to specific folks.  I’m not above co-siging on things like that, so I did.  I “liked” my fair share of photos from their Centennial event as well as updates.  SN: “like” sometimes isn’t enough to really convey how I feel about a picture or an update.   I need a +1, or a “me too”, or a love button or something that conveys a “what he/she said”.

And sure, there were plenty of the joke type of updates, particularly the riff on the Kanye West/Taylor Swift speech.

(boy, everything becomes a meme)

But overall, there was a lot of Black Greek love going on.  Even one of my line sisters got in the act.

Dara D.

January 13 near Manassas, VA

Here it goes! (Uh-hum) Congratulations to the lovely ladies of Delta Sigma Theta for 100 years of service. I am truly honored to call many of these women some of “bestest” (better than best) friends. Here’s to another 100 years of opportunity to ruin every DST picture I can. Remember at the top of every pyramid is my pinkie :). Pinkies Up…Love you ladies! — 

That’s the type of relationship we have with one another.  Exactly.

Two days later, the AKAs celebrated their Founder’s Day and my inbox was flooded with well-wishes from my sorority sisters, near and far.  As I was scrolling through them FB alerted me that I got tagged in a post.  It read:

Roberta H.

January 15

although you are not my sorority sisters, you are still my greek sisters – happy founders day to my aka loveliesTiffany D., Dara D., Hilary D., LaVonne C., Margo S., Angel S., Candi A., Nicole G., Melissa D., Karen S.

Touching, right? I immediately thought of the photo above and just how far we’ve come as sister, women, and friends.  Despite the colors we wear or the letters on our chests, we’re still the same group of girls that came to the campus of William and Mary in the fall of 1996, graduated in the spring of 2000 and had all manner of adventures in between.

We’re coming up on our 15 year college reunion, and I would love to recreate this photo, maybe even expand upon it to include those young ladies we’ve brought up behind us.  Because like I said before, it doesn’t end with graduation.  It’s really only the beginning, and what a run we’ve had so far.