ending of an era.

Well, kind of. But today was kind of an epic day for me. (with nothing nursing related!)

For the past year I've been an officer in my sorority (Kappa Kappa Gamma) and today was the day that I passed off all my my officer-ish belongings to the my incoming officer.. Now, I'm still the current House chairman until late January when we transition officers, but really I'm pretty much done.

And this is a little depressing. It seems like it was just last month I was the new officer, with pretty much no knowledge of what I was getting myself into. And now, today, I was the experienced veteran, suddenly I am the knowledgeable one, suddenly I am the grown up, suddenly I am done-and it's my time to pass along my knowledge.

And I'm not quite sure what to think. I wanted to become an officer because I wanted to feel like I had a voice in my chapter, like I could change things. I wanted to make a difference. And I got exactly that, and so much more. I remember being shocked when I got the call that I had been nominated for my position, I was actually amazed that the nominating committee had actually thought to even consider me. I was so excited when I got elected- excitement which carried itself though my whole term.

I really did enjoy my officer position. I was House chairman, and because our chapter doesn't have a house I really didn't have to do much- but I was still an officer. I had my fair share of work to do, but all in all it was nothing to stressful. I found that however stress out I was with school, Council was my built in break time, my little stress reliever. As a whole I love going to chapter and council, because it's a time when I get to forget about school and hang out with all of my friends that I haven't seen all week. It was really my time to relax, if even for a little bit. Also, being in nursing this year, I haven't really had much of a life outside of schoolwork- so council and chapter was my time to 'socialize with the outside world' in short.

Now, next semester I will still religiously attend chapter all all the outside events, but I won't have council. And I'm really going to miss it. I met one of my best friends this year through council, and it's going to be weird to not see her every monday in council. I know our friendship won't suffer because I won't be there, but it's going to be different.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I'm going to miss it. It's always hard to give something up that you've worked so hard on- but that's also part of growing up, and moving on. I have to trust that things will still run smoothly without me, and that I taught my incoming officer enough so that she doesn't feel like I fed her to the sharks. I have to trust that next semester I'll still be just as involved in Kappa, just in a different way.

So, as always, life pushes on, we move forward, making a difference little by little.

FYI- this isn't a picture of my sorority house, it's the Kappa house at Northwestern University. But because my chapter doesn't have a house I thought it was only fitting to post another Kappa house!

Also, the top picture is from this past year's bid day (2008) and we're in the shirts that I pretty much designed!