Thirty Years Ago, I Quit the Sorority and Peed On My Sorority Pin
Thirty years later, a dear friend told me it was time to let it go.
I sat at my laptop in my house typing away next to an owl mug I bought in China Town. I was experiencing a “block.” Even though as a writer and a writing coach, I do not believe in blocks. I called my dear, longtime friend Lisa. She told me to listen to my own advice, the same advice she’d heard me give to countless writers countless times. “Don’t think,” she said. “Just write.”
Flashback to the spring of 1990. I was sitting in the dining hall at the sorority house for Monday Night Meeting. It was the evening of Senior Wills. The graduating class of seniors got to bequeath funny items, ideas, and inside jokes to each of their underclass sorority sisters. The gifts came from the senior class — you didn’t know from whom exactly. It was meant to be anonymous and funny and a celebration. All members were required to attend.
I was twenty years old and finishing my second year at UCLA. It had not been easy. I was from Florida. In those days, most students at UCLA were from California. It felt like everyone knew each other from home. After the first year, I applied to transfer back east. But I didn’t. The second year, I liked UCLA better.
