A Friend Like Kathleen
Written by Kate Long, a member of Gamma Phi Beta.
Making friends with other women has always been challenging for me; and maintaining friendships is even harder. Therefore, this is the reason many women seek out sorority memberships. I knew coming into a large school like The University of Georgia, quality friendships would make or break my college experience. Enter Gamma Phi Beta. I had an awesome pledge class and older sisters guiding me through the first three, most crazy, months of college. Come November I still was just not “feeling it” yet.
Enter Kathleen Rigsbee, lover of bacon, sports, Raleigh, and fashion. She was friends with everyone in our pledge class, the voice of the GroupMe. We made plans together for dinner the night of Gamma Phi’s Semi-Formal date night. After one night of seeing her genuinely interested in establishing relationships with everyone we hung out with that evening, as well as greeting everyone she already knew throughout our night, I was hooked. She had to be my friend.
Kathleen constantly inspires me to grow as a woman. Every freshman, sophomore, junior, and now sadly senior year (a pitfall I have stumbled into), Kathleen has gracefully and compassionately loved me through it. She is a classic example of Panhellenic love as she maintains friends in every sorority and excitedly introduced them to me. She is a genius with a planner and keeping touch with friends. She manages being Public Relations Vice President, Grady Ambassador, College of Education Ambassador, a retail job, a Ramsey job, Hoop Girls, ticketing intern, studying abroad in Costa Rica, family out-of-state, an advertising internship this past summer, and a sports internship last summer. She is truly a dynamic and dedicated woman. Gamma Phi Beta (and me) are lucky to have a sister like Kathleen!
