It was almost a year ago to the week that I wrote my first column for The News.

I remember the former Sports Editor, Ryan, asking me if I’d be willing to write one, which I now understand either means he was starting to trust me as a writer or he was just really low on content that week.

Either way, I took on the challenge and wrote my first column about my family and our Thanksgiving traditions.

Here it is, almost Turkey Day once again, and I’m feeling as thankful and sentimental as ever. I have many things to be thankful for in life, but family is above and beyond No. 1 on my list.

It’s become obvious through my series of columns that family is important to me. Recently, I’ve been thinking about how we define family and what it is that makes family so special to all of us.

I have my biological family – my mom, dad, brother, nephews, grandparents, cousins, etc., and I also have my chosen family in my sisters of Alpha Delta Pi. They are both equally important to me, and have both raised me through different aspects of my life.

My mom and dad taught me everything I needed to know to be a  (mostly) functional member of society. They taught me values like hard work and dedication and gave me enough morals to be a (mostly) respectful and respected human being. They fed me, gave me shelter and provided an education for me. They did this all without me asking, because that’s what parents do. That’s what families are expected to do.

Then I came to college – the place where “you find your bridesmaids” (permitting I ever get married) – with the hopes of choosing my own family. I went through sorority recruitment and knew Alpha Delta Pi was the only place for me.

I was thrown into hundreds of women, some exactly like me, some my complete opposites. The same held true when I transferred schools and affiliated with the chapter here. Some girls looked, talked and dressed just like me, others were the ones who frustrate, challenge and confuse me, just like my real family.

With only one biological sibling, my older brother, I never could have imagined what I was getting myself into when I signed that paper to pledge myself to my sorority.

There’s always a black sheep of the family, whether we like to admit it or not. You know, the person that won’t watch football with you on Thanksgiving? That’s the interesting thing about a sisterhood – at times we’ve all been the black sheep. We’ve all been frustrated, we’ve all been excited and we’ve all been burnt out. We’ve all succeeded in some things, failed in others and been mediocre at most. But the important thing is that we do it together, and someone always herds that black sheep back into the group.

If I were to write a list of blessings in my life, it would never end. But if it were in order of importance, my sisters would surely be at the top.

I guess I’m just being sappy because I’m thinking about being away from my closest friends for four days and then soon after for a month. Or maybe my mind is burnt out on the male-dominated world of sports and I want to focus on the women in my life for a second, but I think the moral of this column is that I’m thankful heading into the break. What are you most thankful for?

Column by Mallory Tucker, Sports Editor