Rest in Peace, Love

My old high school likes to hype up the "sisterhood" talk. It's a lot like a sorority in this way* and sometimes it feels fake, forced. Just because our parents paid $20K in tuition to send us to the same school doesn't mean I have a sisterly bond with every other girl at the school. And maybe that was true when I first arrived as a freshman but I really do believe now that I've come out on the other end that I am bonded with my NDP sisters. Our small, all girls high school was a wonderful place to spend 4 years, a unique and enriching experience that I look back on and credit with making me into the confident young woman I am today. My "sisters" are the only other young women who have shared the experience. Maybe we aren't all best friends but we are bonded by the influence NDP has had on our lives. And every single NDP sister, diverse as we all are, has one thing in common - we are all "loving, just and wise."

I bring this up because on days like today I am reminded of the power of this sisterhood.

In the early hours of Monday morning, one of my NDP sisters was found dead in her apartment at college. She was three years above me in school and I didn't know her personally except for how one knows the senior star of the lacrosse team and shining star of the senior class. She was beautiful and talented and a true NDP sister. Now, her untimely and unfair death has become a high-profile murder case, a front page news story.

This is the sort of thing that just devastates a community. Just like in the fall when one of my brothers' Loyola brothers passed away, I find my Facebook home page inundated with messages of "Rest in Peace." All of the message are from NDP sisters, girls who knew her well and girls who knew her as I did. We've all come together. Because we're a community. Maybe "sisters" is cheesy and overly sentimental but in this sort of situation it is true.

We lost one of our sisters today. It's tragic, devastating, unfair but we've come together as a community to show our support.

Rest in Peace, YL.

*And that's the main reason why I didn't rush...I was already in a sorority for 4 years and I feel like it was a more age appropriate experience in high school. Frankly, I'd feel stupid going through the whole "sisterhood" thing again.