Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The new sisterhood

I don't post too much here anymore. And that's ok. I'm not going to feel guilty about it.

I keep up with my off line journal (IRL) and Facebook, Twitter, Path, Instagram. I think that's ok. If you really want to know what's up, you know how to find me.

But I do want to share something that I am extremely proud of.

Last month, while out to dinner with two of my friends, I mentioned that we have been our support for trying times in our lives. And that's wonderful -- that's what friends do -- but friends are also each other's cheerleaders. We need to be able to celebrate the amazing things we do with each other, and not feel self-conscious about it.

And the idea of Brag Supper Club was born.

There are eight of us in our group of friends. All smart, independent, open-minded women who all genuinely support each other. It's rare to make close friends as you get older, and even more important to maintain those relationships that mean so much to you.

We agreed that on the last Wednesday of each month, we will rotate hosting dinner at our home. It could be potluck, or whatever. We even have culinary themed nights: Mardi Gras, Puerto Rican cooking... Our only requirement is to get together, eat, drink and be merry.

By itself, that would be enough. But I wanted to make it something more.

As it turned out, the first dinner of Brag Supper Club was last week at my house and I had something special planned.

Dinner and conversation was casual, but as soon as the pizza was done, I broke out the Brag Jar. (I can't believe I didn't take a picture!) It is a large glass jar with a lid.


As women, we often wind up taking care of other people -- co-workers, partners, family and friends -- that we can neglect our own needs. Then we become frustrated or guilty because of:
"I didn't do this..."
"I didn't finish that..."

Its time to remind ourselves that we need to pay attention to ourselves and celebrate our successes -- no matter how big or small. We are a group of women who support each other and are each other's cheerleaders.

We need to be comfortable saying "Look at me, here's what I did!"

Everybody was given a glass stone. It represented something that we wanted to brag about ourselves. We had to put in at least one, but we could include as many brags as we wanted. As we shared our brags, we added our stone to the Brag Jar.

  • Claudine: Now the Campus Division Lead for the Circle of Sisterhood charity she volunteers for
  • Lori: Standing up to her mom and letting her know that she doesn't see children in her future
  • Kristine: Joined a gym - that she actually has to pay for!
  • Kelly: Running 13+ miles this weekend
  • Kristin: creating a new home for Bailey
  • Kim: Supporting Savannah in her first boyfriend break-up crisis
As the months progress, we can see how our collective 'brags' add up. The next host will hold the Brag Jar until the next monthly 'meeting' of the Brag Supper Club.

In addition... as a sorority girl, I have gained much support from my organization. We essentially do the same for each other. Now that we have our own Ritual, I hereby declared ourselves Beta Sigma Chi sorority (BSC - Brag Supper Club). Our motto is "Fun, Food, Friendship"


We all received initiation certificates and in lieu of a badge, we received our own commemoration BSC stone.

Welcome to the Sisterhood!


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