Three years ago, when I went through recruitment at the start of my first year at WKU, I carried with me the stories my mother told me about her time as a member of Epsilon Delta. She let me choose my own path on the Hill, but I could hear her excitement bursting through the phone on Bid Day when I told her I ran home to ADPi. Our unique experiences in this chapter shape the women that we become; they foster in us a dedication to self, scholarship, sisterhood, and sorority. Knowing that my mother developed the same dedication to these four diamond points grew my love for Alpha Delta Pi even more, and it grew a bond of sisterhood between my mother and me. Many of our members have created a similar bond with their mothers who are now Pi members of our sorority. But whether or not our mothers were members of Alpha Delta Pi, many of us learned long before we joined Epsilon Delta the value each of the four diamond qualities brings to our lives. Our sorority’s brand motto, Be the First, carries many different meanings to each of us, and on Mother’s Day, we use our motto to recognize the women in our lives who were the first to teach us how dedication to self,
scholarship, sisterhood, and sorority will lead us to achieve rich and useful lives.
Self.
We see our mothers as the most selfless women we know. However, we have also learned from them the importance of taking care of ourselves. We have seen our mothers live lives of independence. We have seen them pursue their dreams and work hard to achieve their personal goals. Our mothers taught us how to adapt when plans change or how to recover when disaster creeps up on us. When life got tough, our mothers demonstrated their character of courage and their personality of perseverance. We strengthen our own character and personality by following their example.
Scholarship.
From our mothers, we learn the value of scholarship. Many of us pursued our education because of the love for learning our mothers instilled in us. Some of our mothers paid their own way through college, went to school to become high-ranking professionals in their field, or remained dedicated to their education even if their path fell outside of the traditional four-year plan. Our mothers remain dedicated to scholarship now through the support they give us throughout our college experience. Our mothers were the first in our lives to teach us to carry high educational standards.
Sisterhood.
Our mothers established a foundation of community for us that we carry into our sisterhood within Alpha Delta Pi. Some of our very first memories of family feature our moms as the central caregivers, storytellers, and cheerleaders. In Alpha Delta Pi, we live for each other, but it was our mothers who first lived for us. We learned service from the women who cared for us from the very beginning: the women who stayed up with us in the late hours of the night to put to sleep our tired eyes, to soothe our upset stomachs, and to mend our broken hearts. After long days of work, they started their shifts as our taxi drivers, our bake sale fundraisers, and our pep section leaders. Now, as members of a larger community of women, we care for our sisters because our mothers taught us how caring for family is a form of love. We watch our attitudes toward our fellow-beings, and we strive to display attitudes of service and friendship like our mothers displayed to us.
Sorority.
Our mothers taught us how to live for a cause greater than ourselves. We have seen our mothers pursue the values that mean the most to them through their commitment to family, work, and faith. We have seen them put their needs aside and devote their time to others. We joined a sorority because our mothers taught us how service to a meaningful cause gives our lives purpose and joy. Throughout our lives, we watched our moms display both faith and loyalty, and we develop our own now because of them.
As members in Alpha Delta Pi, we often talk about the women who taught us to be the first: the women in 1851 who first established our sisterhood, the women throughout our history who have defined what it means when we say, we live for each other and the women on the wall who have served as our role models during our college experience. Today, however, we honor the women not only who were with us in the first moments of our lives but who also stood alongside us each step of the way. Motherhood takes on many forms, but many of us can point out the women in our lives who have taught us to be strong, who have welcomed us with open arms, and who have shown us what it means to love one another. On this Mother’s Day, the women of Epsilon Delta give special thanks to the mothers, the grandmothers, the aunts, the sisters, and all of the women in our lives who have made us into the people we are today. Thank you for giving us the first example of what it means to strive to achieve rich, useful lives.