I get my True Blue, Georgia Southern blood and love for ADPi honestly. My parents, my aunt and my uncle all attended college here and my grandparents worked here. Growing up, I heard stories from my parents about their time at Georgia Southern and about my mom and her sister’s love for ADPi. As an only child, I remember thinking how cool it would be to have so many sisters all over the world, if I was ever lucky enough to be an ADPi, or in any sorority at all. 

I chose Georgia Southern because it felt like home. I wanted to have that same feeling with my sorority. During rush, I was so nervous going into the ADPi house. I was nervous that it wouldn’t be all that I had built it up to be in my mind and even more nervous that they wouldn’t like me or I just wouldn’t fit in. Going through rush, everyone tells you of “the feeling” you’ll have when you walk into the house you belong in. The moment I walked into ADPi I knew that was the place for me. Jenny Way picked me up at the door and made me fall even more in love with ADPi and the girls that would eventually become my sisters. Each day after, through recruitment, I had that same nervous feeling but I knew that God would lead me to the house I belonged in. 

Bid day was so much fun – I ran home to my bid day buddy, Mary Spivey (who also became my big!), and standing right there with her were my mom and aunt! It was so special to be welcomed home by two of the most important women in my life. 

My mom wrote this to me the night before my initiation into Alpha Delta Pi and my experiences as a sister have proved that my mom was right (of course!). 

            “For as long as I can remember, you said you wanted to “be” an ADPi – and, I never shared this thought with you, because you could not truly understand until this special week….but I already knew that you would not really have a day or time to “become” an ADPi…..an ADPi is what you have always been.” 

My first year in ADPi was exactly what I had dreamed of!  I made so many new friends, got the greatest big and grand-big, and I felt like someone (or 200+ someones) had my back no matter what.

 The one thing missing was my best friend. My cousin Ansley is one year younger than me and during my freshman year, she was a senior in high school. I knew as soon as I joined ADPi that this is where she belonged too. I prayed she would pick to come to Georgia Southern with me and when she finally chose, I was so excited for our college adventures together!

Fast forward to 2018 Recruitment Week. Each day my mom told me that Ansley had loved everywhere she had been. I knew ADPi was her home and I was hoping she would see that during the short time she got to spend in my home away from home. On preference day, I FINALLY got to talk to my best friend and hear all about her week. The first thing she told me was, “Megan, I want to be an ADPi so bad.” I probably cried more than she did that day, but I think now, she understands why. 

 My sweet Ans running home to me on Bid Day was such a fun day! Now she knows, first hand, why my mom, her mom, and I love ADPi so much. 

 I didn’t think it was possible but my sophomore year in ADPi has been even more fun with her by my side through everything. 

 Alpha Delta Pi is more than a ritual, more than a symbol, it is a way of life. It’s the way of life my mom taught me to live before I was an ADPi, how my Aunt Anne taught Ansley to live before she was an ADPi, and how Ans and I will teach our daughters to live before (fingers crossed) they become ADPis.

-Megan Leben (Fall ‘17)