Anyway, Wednesday, July 31, I along with three SAAC Members (all Epsilon Xi alumni) and six Epsilon Xi Members made the long drive to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to attend the annual National Convention held by the fraternity. We were super excited about the trip! We packed up in a 15 passenger van and headed on the long 12 hour trip (thanks to traffic and a Cracker Barrel stop it took us about 3 hours longer than expected). We were greeted by members of National Council which was truly a treat for everyone.
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| The Van to Philly |
Friday was a day for Grand Chapter, which entails all of the Chapters of the fraternity voting on various fraternity business. Six of the group, including myself, were able to attend Grand Chapter while the other four explored Philadelphia. Saturday was filled with opportunities to mingle with other Brothers and attend sessions to bring back to our Chapters. I was able to meet with primarily with the Alumni Members in our special Alumni Track session. I gathered lots of ideas and sought out some additional opportunities for the upcoming year. Typically, the highlight of Saturday during National Convention is the Awards Banquet in the evening.
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| My Nametag! |
As a group, we were all hoping that one of our Chapters would win an award; however, because both were so young (Epsilon Xi only 5 years old and SAAC 1 year old), we weren't holding our breath. We all got dressed up and headed to the ballroom for dinner and the awards ceremony. We had a lovely dinner and the awards ceremony began. As the awards were announced and finding out that another Chapter received the "Most Improved" and "Outstanding Alumni Chapter" award, all of us waited in hopes that Epsilon Xi that would have the chance for the "Top in Region" award. The time came and Epsilon Xi won the "Top in Region" for the Bluegrass region! We were so excited as this was the first national award that our Chapter had ever received! Once the pictures were taken and the beautiful certificate was passed around the table, all of us settled down to listen to the last of the awards, the scholarships and distinguished Joseph Torchia Outstanding Chapter awards.
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| The attendees at the beginning of Banquet |
We heard two inspiring stories from the two scholarship recipients and listened to the VP of Membership Development give the speech and award the Gamma Theta Chapter of LSU the first Torchia award. Embarrassing to write, but many of us around the table were on our phone checking Twitter (the thing to do during convention), refilling our coffee mugs, or taking a bathroom break. Then the moment began...
National Secretary, Chris McCoy, approached the podium to give out the second Torchia. Ryan looked at me and whispered in my ear, "Why would he be getting up there? He would only announce if it was given to a Bluegrass Chapter (his home Chapter was in that region)." I shook my head and thought to myself, "It can't be Epsilon Xi. They did well this year given the crazy circumstances and all of the drama, but not enough to win a Torchia." I even remember myself explaining early that afternoon to the delegate and alternate of the Chapter that if they won an award that the delegate would go to the front and receive it and continued by saying, "If you win a Torchia, which is incredibly unlikely, then you all go." Slowly, Chris began mentioning a Chapter that had come together as Brothers to have an awesome semester. "In fact, it was only two years ago, the Chapter was at what was described as a 'point of no return,'" Chris continued. Ryan and I both thought to ourselves, "Man, it must have been a tough year that year", thinking back to how just two years ago our own Chapter was down to only 8 Brothers, a few of which reached out to us alumni for help. Chris continued, "This Chapter has worked diligently to triple their chapter size..." and he continued to describe events similar to the ones that our Chapter held that past year. We all started to looking around the table thinking is it even possible that this is us?
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| Picture taken by Kyle Williams. Notice that we are all looking at each other like, "no way, it can't be us." Justin holds back tears as he knows that it had to be us. |
Then Chris said, "From events such as...a Hershey Bar collection 'war' with a local alumni chapter to send to children in the Philippines." At that point, I couldn't contain my tears.
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| Me (to the left) and Josh and Justin (on the right) finally realize that it was us. |
Ryan put his head in his hands letting his tears flow as well. Only one stoic Brother could contain her tears with a smile ear to ear. All of us were wiping our tears, gradually getting to the point where they were uncontrollable. "And they are now realizing who they are..." chuckled Chris bringing the attention to the tables around us who began hearing our tears of joy.
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| "And they now realize who they are.." |
Happy tears are what my Grandmama would have described when I was experiencing. I thought back to all of the hard times that I experienced as an undergraduate hoping that one day I would be able to leave my legacy. I remembered promising right after graduating in 2010 to one of my best friends at the time, Sara (Scobee) Beachler as she cried with worry, that I would do everything in my power to keep the Chapter that we started alive. I remembered two years ago when I was worried that we would have to inactivate our Chapter because of low membership. I remembered how hard the beginning of last semester was as an alumni.
Then I began to remember how proud those undergraduate Brothers were at the Bluegrass regional conference in April with their zombie makeup, how motivated the Initiate committee was to make the best initiate program despite the recent, sudden departure of their Initiate Advisor, how easy it was to encourage the Brothers to love one another and challenge each other to be the best, and how wonderful the weekend had already been. That only lead me to more happy tears. It was truly an honor to watch all six undergraduate Brothers walk to the front of the room all holding hands to receive the Torchia trophy. The alumni left at the table just hugged each other thinking, "They did it and we were able to be a part of this."
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| Epsilon Xi undergraduate and alumni Brothers with National Council with their first two National awards. |
The rest of the evening we kept asking each other if it was a dream. At varying times of the evening when we realized that it was real, tears, hugs, and congratulations were shared. Even the next morning we could not hold back our happy tears as other Brothers continued to congratulate us.
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| The president of the Chapter brought the Torchia to Ryan and I to look at because of our dedication to the Chapter. It was very hard for me to control my tears at this point. |
This was truly my favorite moment of the summer. Phi Sigma Pi has always held a major place in my heart. It brought me my closest friends, who I can call Brother. It gave me the college experience of a lifetime and it continues to bless me as I move further into my life. It has given me a family away from home. Knowing that the Chapter's hard work was recognized despite all of the challenges from this past spring was a pinnacle moment. I can't wait to see what this upcoming year has in store!
"The Chapter is just like a big family that helps each other out through the hard times." - Justin Pritchard, 2013 Social Chair, Epsilon Xi Chapter
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