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" 1. When you see a leadership opportunity, take it. Take it even if you don&amp;#039;t feel 100 percent ready for it. Whether you are junior alumni representative or vice president of your house, there is value in running for a position as any kind of officer for your sorority. Having responsibility (without having Real Responsibility) is great preparation for, well, Real Responsibility. (Which you&amp;#039;ll never really feel ready for even when you&amp;#039;re out of college, so might as well start pushing yourself now.) 2. Time management is so important. Ultimately, being in a sorority is a (24/7) extracurricular activity. You have to go to class and do work and lots of other things too! It hits you pretty early on during pledging that if you don&amp;#039;t learn to manage your time well, you will fall behind. So you adjust. Learning to prioritize and tackle the most important thing is a skill that never leaves you. MORE: Should You Join A Sorority? Real Girls Share The Pros and Cons 3. Being good at small talk is a difficult and underrated life skill. Rush feels like a time-sucking emotional hole when you&amp;#039;re going through it (on both sides), but when it&amp;#039;s all over, they could put you in a room with anyone and you could talk about anything and seem natural doing it. From networking events with other entry-level people at your first job to awkward wedding table seating, it&amp;#039;s a skill that comes in handy long after the recruitment balloons have popped. 4. You are able to fake confidence like a champ. See above. You&amp;#039;ve learned how to project and assert yourself even when you don&amp;#039;t feel your most confident. This, lady, leads to actual, wonderful confidence. MORE: Your Ultimate Guide To Surviving Rush 5. Networking is invaluable. This might not hit you until you are staring graduation in its terrifying face, but there is no better way to advance your career and your relationships than through networking. Luckily for you, your sisters are smart and wonderful people who have spread throughout the country and are doing kick-ass things career-wise. This is where your small-talking abilities come in. Reach out to a sista friend and you will undoubtedly have a built-in connection and reason to help each other out. 6. You don&amp;#039;t have to be friends with everyone. Candle rituals and singing together can only take you so far into a friendship. Some people are just not meant to like each other. That&amp;#039;s FINE. It&amp;#039;s better to know it now than to kill yourself trying to be everyone&amp;#039;s friend. 7. But you do have to know how to be nice\u2014not fake\u2014to people you don&amp;#039;t like. Being forced into situation with people you&amp;#039;re not friends with will happen literally forever. You will undoubtedly end up in many work situations where you have to deal with people you don&amp;#039;t want to deal with, or be stuck at a party with an ex-boyfriend. Luckily, having been through rush, pledging, mixers, and scholarship events you might not have been thrilled about, you already know how to be polite even if you&amp;#039;re raging inside. Snaps for you! MORE: Why Joining A Sorority Doesn&amp;#039;t Change Who You Are 8. You can be charitable in ways you didn&amp;#039;t realize you could be. Each sorority has a nationally affiliated philanthropy (or two or three!). Most likely, you weren&amp;#039;t involved with said philanthropy before you got to college. Chances are, you are much more invested in helping out the corgis on wheels of the world or the breast cancer charity your mom was already working with. Being in a sorority pushes you to explore things you never would&amp;#039;ve on your own and makes you much more comfortable seeking out your own volunteer opportunities post-grad. 9. You can be a role model, even when you don&amp;#039;t feel that special. You may not have realized it, but at some point when you were obsessing over your Pretty Little Little, she was telling everyone how you are someone she really looks up to. Whether you talk to your little about boys or grades, you are unknowingly being there for someone in a way that can&amp;#039;t be replaced. Remember this when you take your first mentee under your wing. 10. You are always capable of more than you think. Think about it: You made it through college while constantly being involved in an organization. You balanced work and play, and you helped your sisters along the way. Of course, you couldn&amp;#039;t have done it without them, too, but that is why you joined a sorority in the first place, isn&amp;#039;t it? MORE: 9 Tips For Surviving Life After College From The Intern Queen Lauren Berger What lessons has being in a sorority taught you? Share in the comments below. Photo Credit: 20th Century Originally Posted on  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/school/advice/a17798/sorority-life-lessons/>