The official start to my year long adventure!
I woke up at a rediculously early hour on Wednesday and went to the Philly airport to fly to Raleigh, North Carlolina, a state and city I have never been to before. (Do you know what "pop a top" ,"Chadda" ,"Pollyanna" mean? I had NO idea until I went to NC)
Well due to delays because of the really fun weather in Philly (read: raining and gross) my flight was delayed, so even though I got to the airport, through security and was sitting at my gate by 8:30am, my flight didnt actually end up getting off the ground until almost 11:30am.
I met Angela and Tiffany in the Raleigh/Durham airport, a different experience since I had seen maybe one or two pictures before through facebook stalking, but ended up meeting with them and getting picked up by my boss Lorin. When we picked up Celinda, Lorin announced that we were running late and were going to quickly check in our housing at North Carlona State University and make our way to the conference that had already begun. The four of us walked into the conference that had already started while Lorin went back to the airport to get Kelsi who had missed her connecting flight in Philly and was super delayed.
The conference itself was hard work. It was the Interdisciplinary Institute for Hazing Intervention that brought together, Greek Advisors, Athletic Coaches, Student Conduct Officers, Executive and Board members for multiple national Greek Organizations just to name a few. It was heavy stuff, and alot to comprehend. The history of hazing, the face of who is hazing, how our society influnces hazing, how we have to treat this problem like the epidemic that it has grown to be. The sessions went from 8:30am to 9:30pm each night with breaks for lunch and dinner.
The hardest part of the conference itself was that not only was I processing information on hazing intervention but also I had all of these question about my upcoming position with Sigma, and was also trying to get to know five other women who I will be working with for the next year, so there was never a moment when I was not processing new information.
The best part of this trip for me was the last full day. We checked out of NC State University and went to check in to a hotel closer to the Raleigh/Durham Airport. We met with Su-Lin who gave a presentation about ritual and Tracy who spoke about Sigmas financial status and how the organization is working to have a consistent banking system for all chapters. After the presentations we went to UNC-Chapel Hill... it was amazing.
I saw my first real life sorority house, up close and personal, and I saw a house that had my letters on it, I have never in my life been so happy to see a house.
While we were at UNC-Chapel Hill we went to the Hospital that is affiliated with the university, I dont know if its on campus on not, it felt like I was and the campus was one of the largest I have ever been on. Here is the best part...
I got to see the Robbie Page Playroom in the UNC-Chapel Hill Hospital. The Robbie Page Memorial is Sigma Sigma Sigma's philanthropy, and it seems like something that not many people actually get to see in person. Tiffany has pictures so hopefully I will have them soon, it was amazing to see what all of the fundraising efforts really go to. It was a beautiful facility and looked like it had alot to offer any child who would be in it. We visited around 9pm, we tried but could not schedule a visit, and there were no children actually in the Playroom, but it was great to see how they incorporated Sigma's symbols into the room. There is a picture of Robbie Page on one wall, on another wall is a mural of a lake with two children sailing in a boat with a purple sail, there is a banner flying from the mast that has 3 Sigmas on it, and there name of the boat is Robbie Page.
All in all the trip was hard work but great. It was kind of a sneak preview for what it is going to be like to work with this team of LC's later this summer... I'm pumped : )
