Citizenship

I think that when we are young, citizenship is a concept that we feel entitled to. Afterall, we are American citizens upon birth under the law of our country. As I have gotten older, I have realized that citizenship in a figurative sense is not a guarantee; it requires active participation in the community for not only the benefit of others, but for the benefit of ourselves. We must share a piece of our individuality with the community while at the same time allowing the concept of citizenship to BE us and to consume us in order to be whole in the midst of our individual parts. I think that the members of my chapter are moving toward the right way to think about citizenship. We have a philanthropy, we have a service requirement, we actively participate in the greek community and Ohio State community..the list goes on. However, I think what a lot of people miss amongst all of this activity is the fact that each of these events are not just made to be "mandatory" without reason. People go, they participate, and then they leave knowing that we are donating X amount of dollars or that they are 5 hours closer to their service requirement. 

Our involvement is aimed to make us better, more well rounded women but we cannot be 100% successful if we are just going through the motions. There needs to be a level of understanding beyond what is "required" in order for women to begin to be able to think of citizenship as a whole in a different way. We have the single order changes in place--how are we going to translate this to a second order change that actually begins to address the root of the issue?