My MOH speech to the K's!

I met Tanya in the fall of 2004. We were both nerdy college freshman at the University of South Dakota and new members at Kappa Alpha Theta. I still think that the main reason we became friends was because we were two of the only students at USD that didn’t drink. Well, that obviously didn’t last long. But I’m happy to say that our friendship did.

We have remained friends through all these years even though we once shared one bedroom with 18 other women in our sorority house. We went backpacking in Europe together for three weeks and even without regularly showering we came back to the states as friends. We spent a crazy summer in Vermillion, SD throwing parties and recycling beer cans. It wasn’t all fun and games though, we also survived some tough stuff in life that I know I couldn’t have gone through without Tanya by my side.

And for most of our friendship, we were both single. (I still am!) She would occasionally go on dates with guys but when she would come home and we would ask her how it went she would always say in her Tanya way, “It was fine. He was nice.” It’s for this reason that I was especially surprised when Tanya first told me about Chad because instead of saying “He’s fine. It was nice.” She said, “I really like him.”

Now I’ll be honest and say that when Tanya first told me about this Chad guy, I was a little leery. Tanya is my best friend, and I knew that she deserved the absolute best. I needed to figure out if this Chad had what I took. Then on Labor Day weekend, Sena, Char, and I went to Kansas City to visit Tanya, and Chad invited us over for a barbecue at his house with his friends and family. I was looking forward to being able to test this guy out to see if he was worthy of my best friend. I remembered hearing once that you can really tell the character of a man by how he treats his mother, and I decided that the best way to see how he would treat Tanya was to observe the way that he treated Carla. And all night I watched and I listened and I creeped, and by the end of the night, I knew two things: I knew that Chad loved his mom and I knew that Chad loved Tanya. And that’s all that I needed to know.

I’m so happy that Tanya finally found someone that wasn’t just “fine” or “nice” but someone she is truly crazy about. And I’m so happy that Chad is taking Tanya off my hands. I shared a bunk bed with Tanya for one too many years. Now he can deal with her sleep talking and sleep laughing! But in all seriousness, it has been a honor watching you find and fall in love with each other. Congratulations, I love you both.