Sisterhood!
A note from our VP Communications, Eileen Grouchnikov:
Where did you learn what love looks like?
In the winter of 2018, my family and I stepped into a fairytale. As we wandered through the streets of Iceland, the Earth felt alive beneath our feet. The air bit at our cheeks, and for the first time in weeks, it felt like my heart had finally remembered how to beat. I breathed in time with the Earth. When I was sixteen, my family went to Cusco: a city frozen in time, seemingly trapped in the 70s. Cars that we only see in movies filling the streets, buildings painted taupe with murals decorating countless walls, a mother holding her son in one arm and her whole life in the other. So many homes containing so many souls that have only ever known these mountains. In every way, it is beautiful. And like so many times before, this past June I found myself standing in the middle of a summer day in Europe. I breathed in deeply, and it smelled like my childhood, somehow.
What I’m trying to say is this: I learned what love looks like through viewing our world through the lenses of different lives. I learned how to love through the lens of our beautiful existence, and I also learned that I did not have to travel to all corners of the Earth to experience these different lives: I could find them right here. In this sisterhood. Through the beauty of our collective existence, I discovered that same love had found its way into the smallest corners of my heart, and proved that home can be people who make us feel seen.
And this whole long letter was really just a way for me to say that as members of Zeta Tau Alpha, we strive to live by the ending part of our creed: Love, the Greatest of All Things! I know I speak for all of us when I say this isn’t just a sentiment, but rather a lived experience.
Having each other means having a constant, steady support system through every high and every low. It is found in the way we celebrate each other’s small victories (like getting an interview for an internship) - because the small victories are worth celebrating too!!!! It is found in the way we rally together for our philanthropy, and the way we hold each other through our sadness and our joy.
Anyone that knows me knows that I am incredibly sentimental, but I truly believe that there is something so very special about being a part of a sisterhood where I am celebrated for exactly who I am and pushed to reach for the noblest version of myself. I am honored to share this bond that reminds me that I never have to navigate the world alone.
All my Zeta love, Eileen
