Home is where ADPi Is
I heard the rumors as soon as I joined ADPi — even as soon as I walked into the house on hot August days in 2018. Chef Rob’s food was good, but the memories made while eating Chef Rob’s food are better. I had no idea what to expect with that bit of information, but as the saying goes, if you know, you know, and I quickly just knew.
Now, as a rising senior at UT here at the Alpha Kappa chapter of ADPi, I can tell you what the hype is all about. The hype comes from the stories we tell packed around a table between classes. It comes from the laughs we share debriefing the morning after a social event. It comes from the check-in’s and check-up’s between classes at lunch time with people from all Alpha (pledge) classes sitting together. Chef Rob’s food is good, but the heart that makes up our community in ADPi is formed in the chapter room during meals, and that’s what’s so good about it.
When I look back on the past three years and how ADPi felt like home, the memories shared here are what I’m going to remember the most and what I’m going to tell people about. As I look to the next year and how I can soak it all in before I leave this ADPi home of mine, I can tell you right now that I will not miss one Friday lunch debrief or pre-chapter dinner all of senior year.
Maybe there’s nothing too special about the chicken fingers or the lava cakes or the study day brunch —maybe, instead, what makes all of us keep coming back for seconds and sitting at the tables from 11 to 1 is just the fact that we made sitting together and sharing those meals really feel like home. So thanks ADPi for feeling like home, and thanks Chef Rob for helping facilitate that.
-Maggie McConnell, AC ’18
Fort Sanders--or should I say “The Fort”--are two words very well known to all college students at the University of Tennessee. First comes the dorm, then the sorority house (if you’re lucky), then “The Fort.” I always knew living here would be something super fun and memorable, especially with all your sisters and closest friends living a few doors down from each other. However, I didn’t know how unforgettable the corner of Laurel Avenue and 14th Street would become.
Casa Blanca, the big White House with the legendary porch, on the corner of 14th and Laurel is my new home. A home that has been within the ADPi community for many years. I have the privilege of sharing this new home with 7 of the best women I’ve ever met, and I’m so lucky to call them my best friends. Whether it’s cramming into our 100 year old living room on a sectional that is not (and never will be) comfortable for movie night, ordering Chef Rob’s meals in bulk, or sitting and laughing until 2 am on our porch, I truly wouldn’t have it any other way.
The big White House on the corner is pretty great, and we do have a legendary porch, but it’s the people I share it with that makes it so memorable and I can’t thank ADPi enough for them.
-Lizzie Brandon, AC ’18
As a freshman, eager to join a sorority, I found ADPi to be the chapter that I felt like would bring me life-long friends and push me (to do well) in school. As the year went on, I deeply enjoyed dressing up for all the different date party themes, eating Chef Rob’s food, and getting to know girls in my Alpha class.
As I am about to venture into my senior year of college, all of the things I enjoyed freshman year were new and fun, but little did I know I would find home in the friendships it has brought me. That being said, over the past three years, my friends and I have been through breakups, losing family members, not getting our dream jobs, and other hardships that life has brought. Throughout these hardships, my friends have become more than sisters. They have become home. They are home, because they are consistent when life is not only high but low. They are home because they allow me to be vulnerable without having to question feeling unsafe or exposed. And they are home because they choose me daily, willingly, and with open arms. With this in mind, home is where you find family, and I found my family through ADPi Tennessee.
- Grace Roddy, AC ’18
It is no secret that those who are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to join a sorority here at UT will make memories to last a lifetime. As I progress into my senior year of college, I am in disbelief that I only get one more short year with this amazing chapter, but I cannot begin to express the amount of memories I’ve made with these women that I’ll be able to tell stories about for years to come.
One of the opportunities you have the chance to experience during your time in ADPi is living in the Pi Palace, or the ADPi House, your sophomore year. I remember being skeptical, considering The Village isn’t exactly “close” to campus, and I was eager to experience life living in an apartment at the time. But looking back, I can’t tell you how thankful I am that my mind quickly changed. Living in the ADPi house gave me the best friends a person could ask for and brought me closer with the girls in my Alpha class more than I could’ve ever imagined. I give credit to one special room in the house, called “the media room,” for showing me what true, genuine friendships should look like.
The media room. A place to cook, do homework, host movie night, talk for hours, play games, and most importantly, where friendships were made. It felt as if there was never a moment that room was empty, knowing it would always be a place to go to for pure entertainment. One of the first nights I lived in the house, everyone crammed into that room and spent the entire night playing games and laughing with one another. I felt so close, comfortable, and just happy to be around everyone, feeling nothing but pure joy.
There is no doubt in my mind that the media room will do justice to the Alpha classes to come for years. The entire ADPi house as a whole is filled with opportunities to make memories, yet the media room, who helped form the friendships I still have today, will always hold a special place in my heart.
— Marisa Warta, AC ’18
Sophomore year I signed up to live in the Pi Palace having no idea what to expect. Little did I know that the word home would mean so much more than the place I lived. Home is cramming as many sisters into a room to watch The Bachelor. Home is helping other sisters prepare for a test, interview, or a date. Home is where the rooms fill with laughter. Home is where sisters support sisters through anything they are going through.
Home is where the love is.
Home is not just a place we live, but it’s a feeling we have when loved by those around us. ADPi has brought me people who love on me and always make me feel at home. As I enter into my senior year, taking in all of these moments where I feel at home will be so memorable when I look back at my time as an ADPi. Thank you, Pi Palace, for the most special memories.
— Sara Glen Hutchinson AC ‘18
ADPi, you’ll always be home sweet home to me, good ole ADPi, whoo! ADPi Tennessee!” I heard this chant when I walked through the doors of ADPi as a freshman going through recruitment — little did I know at the time some of those girls walking through the doors with me would later become my best friends and even later become my roommates. ADPi has physically been a home to me when I lived in the ADPi House my sophomore year and has created a place where I’ve met a group of girls that I can call home.
It really all started for me when our president at the time, Lee Lee Johnson, posted on Facebook that she needed two people to be in charge of Carnicus. I responded back that I would do it, and Olivia Brittle texted me and said “What is Carnicus?” To which I said, “I have no idea, but do it with me.” Without even hesitating, she did. The two of us became the Carnicus coaches, wrote and directed a skit, and ended it all with becoming best friends.
That’s just a glimpse into what the girls are like in ADPi — they are eager to take risks and more than that pursue deeply, love well and give you a space to call home.
— Julia Cook, AC ’18