So, this summer just happened.

I've really fallen off the blog wagon. 

The thing about keeping a blog is that it requires quite a bit of dedicated spare time.

When life gets extraordinary, those spare hours of time just don't come around the way they normally do. 

Recently, my life has been extraordinary. 

And, after hours of trying to approach it from every angle, I just cannot sum up this summer on a blog. 

There, I said it. 

I am too lazy, too overwhelmed, and really just too negligent to even attempt at a proper chronicle of what it is like to get typhoid, spend a month in India, travel with around the great american south with the my true love, catch a breath in Orange County, then hop on over to Hawaii for an extra long weekend with my sister before landing back in a Los Angeles sorority mansion with 50 other girls. 

Like...

who does that?

My life is ludacris. 

I'm sure stories of Hawaii, Georgia, and especially India will seep out of me over time if I do manage to frequently keep a blog. But I just can't intentionally talk about it, it's too much.

For the record though, I want to move to the south.

And also, India was so insane that I get all squirmy and excited when I think about it. I think I found my drug. It went from being number one on my travel destination list, to being number one on my travel destination list.

descanso gardens.

To kick off my birthday weekend, Cubs took me to Descansco Gardens for the first time. It was a truly wonderful afternoon- full of sunlight, roses, koi fish, and secret pathways. I highly recommend a visit for anyone looking to get out of the city for the afternoon.

The gardens were a prime location for picnicking, running after little kids, getting lost, and day dreaming. It's amazing how such a wonderful place is so tucked away that I never knew it existed before. 

And the matching was entirely unintentional. Really.

Owning up.

This post is dedicated to coming out of the Greek closet. I usually downplay this facet of my life, which isn't all that difficult to do because I'm not really hyper involved in it. But if I'm being honest with myself I have to admit that yes, Chi Omega has been a substantial part of my college experience.

As a transfer, I thought it was important to force myself out of the comfort zone that was my dorm room and make myself be social. I also held personal prejudices against sorority and fraternity kids, but knew that it would do me no good to cut myself off from such a thriving aspect of UCLA's student population. A part of me was also scared that if I didn't at least try to see what Greek Life was all about, I would regret it. So- I rushed.

I'm really quite picky about the people I choose to bring into my life and I wouldn't have joined a sorority unless I was sure that I wouldn't get hurt or regret doing it. Throughout the rush process (which is hell, by the way, and should really come with therapists to help so many poor girls deal with the social intensity of it all), I couldn't help but feel like Chi Omega was always a place of enduring positivity. The house was full of a hodge podge of beautiful, nerdy, sporty, active, confident and genuinely happy girls.

So I joined. And I endured the awkward moments of being in a room full of 'sisters' but only knowing about three names. I endured the weirdness of being a junior in a sea of excited and endearingly eager freshman. I endured the strange sensation of walking into a mansion that was supposedly my home without knowing anyone who came to answer the door. Cubs really worked to accept the fact that his girlfriend was a sorority girl and all the strange stereotypes such an identity produces- it was also hard form him to come to terms with how limited his involvement in my 'greek life' could be.

But slowly, I realized how easy going Chi Omega was. How simple it was to just exist as a member and be accepted for what I brought to the sisterhood. I met more friends, learned more names, and eventually acclimated to immense amount of estrogen that buzzed throughout the mansions big rooms during meal times and meetings. The sorority pushed me to take on so many incredible opportunities, (and in another long story)- Chi Omega was there for me in ways I could have never imagined. Cubby eventually got the swing of things too.

The biggest change that Chi Omega made in me was a loss of harsh prejudice and unwarranted judgements. My fear for frat parties has remained as intact as my distaste for bad beer- some things will never change. And though I still shudder when talking to professors, bosses or even doctors when my Greek identity is brought up, what matters is that I know my role in the community and am happy with it.