Hey everyone my name is Ashlyn Arendes. I am currently a sophomore at Georgia Southern and in my 3rd semester as an Alpha Delta Pi! Before ever committing or even thinking about recruitment, I was searching for friends my entire life who had the same desires as I did, made me seem popular, or gave me the best social status. Growing up I began to realize how lenientant and how much trust my parents had given to my siblings and me. My parents were not strict and allowed us to do anything because of the trust they had put in us. As I began to notice this more and more throughout the end of my middle school years and all throughout my high school years I began to really dig deep into my faith and loving god with all of my heart. At the peak of my classmates, friends and me turning from kids into teenagers I noticed how people I was surrounding myself with were not longing for the desires of how I wanted to live my life but they strayed down different paths instead. At the end of my 8th grade year going into highschool drinking, smoking became important to almost everyone I had spent time with. I started to see friends flee from me, thinking I would judge them or critique what they were doing simply because I did not participate in any of these activities. This began to really hurt my heart and shifted my mind to thinking, just maybe if I did these things I would finally feel accepted or seen again. Standing strong in my faith and sticking to what I know is true, I knew God was the only lifelong satisfaction my heart needed. During high school, I started to feel as if God had forgotten about me. I started to ask him why he took friends away that I thought I needed, people I thought loved me so much, the people who gave me the “best social status or popularity.” I asked myself these questions every day for four years, “why me, why did I lose friends when I was the girl who didn't go to parties or do all the things high school kids did to fit in, I always go to church and attend bible studies, how come everyone else has friends and I don’t?” This took a toll on my life. I stopped wanting God so much and wanted the popular friend group and the best fashion style more and more to make me feel seen, to feel accepted. Finally graduating I was so concerned this would all happen over again in college. I started to think, “Who are my friends going to be, will people like me, how will I find new friends?” Since middle and high school were the years I started to believe that having the prettiest, best dressed, popular friend group was all I needed to fulfill what was missing in my heart, I believed this all until the day I walked through Alpha Delta Pi’s front door! I had always questioned myself wondering if a sorority was for me. I didn't think I would fit in, I didn't believe I was “the preppy sorority girl.” Until the first night of registration opened up, I immediately felt the need to sign up. I wasn't sure if it was for me but I wanted to at least try. I didn’t want to finish my college years asking myself, “What if?”

Recruitment finally came around, I was extremely nervous. Growing up in the town of Statesboro and now going to college in Statesboro I thought there was absolutely no way I could find my best friends in the place I had called home for 15 years, the town where I struggled so hard to find Christ-centered friendships but never found them. As the first day of icebreakers came around I met the kindest people ever! I knew giving this sorority thing a shot could be worth it. I had prayed over and over if God would just allow me to stay true to who I am and what I believed in. That then led to the second day of icebreakers where I took my first step into the front doors of Alpha Delta Pi. I knew right away this was the place I would find the lifelong friendships my heart had desired my entire life. I had talked to a girl named Riley Hart who made me feel so loved and so seen, she had the biggest and kindest smile on her face. As the week went on I couldn’t stop thinking about how Riley instantly made me feel the love I had been longing for, for the last 5 years of life. The girls of Alpha Delta Pi brought me so much hope. Every day after that I walked into Alpha Delta Pi I felt a sense of validation that no other house had brought me. I just knew this was the place I would spend my next four years building the strongest, most loyal, Jesus-loving friendships. 

Now being in my 3rd semester in Alpha Delta Pi I can confirm that the past year and a half has exceeded the expectations I ever held before becoming a member of Alpha Delta Pi. Realizing and understanding that a sorority is much more than just paying for friends; it’s finding community, navigating leadership roles, raising money for charities, and watching God move through 250 girls' lives was the most incredible thing I have ever witnessed! I began to transform the way I wanted to live life by learning and finding community in the chapter of Epsilon Pi. I now have the truest, genuine, loyal friends who love me on every level, friends who don’t judge me but hold me accountable, friends who are longing for the things I long for. Not popularity, the best dressed, or having the perfect relationship but friends who love Jesus unconditionally. Friends who understand that Jesus is all that we need, the only satisfaction that won't leave us wanting more. I say all of these things to say in all the years before college. I didn't understand why friendships were taken away or why I always felt punished for doing the right thing but the truth is that if those things weren't taken away from me I wouldn’t be standing where I am today. Without those things gone, who knows where my relationship with God would be or if I would have one at alI. I have lived my entire life trying to earn God’s love and gifts by doing what I thought was the right thing. It wasn't until I took the leap of faith went through the recruitment process and found the girls of Alpha Delta Pi. Through these girls, God has taught me that we live for him because we love him not to earn something from him! This is his truth! Our God is good all the time, our God never stops working. It is the times when we struggle the most and feel like he's not there, that he is preparing our hearts for something far much greater! Never second guess what God’s doing in your life, trust him! 

Jesus said, “ My father is always at work to this very day, and I am too working.” John 6:17