Once an Alpha Chi . . .

As I was standing in line at my local Michael’s today I was behind a young girl buying red and green cardstock, duct tape and ribbons. I must admit my first thought was this was an odd time of the year to have such blatantly Christmas colors. Even the clerk trying to be friendly remarked:
“don’t you realize that Christmas is long over?”
The girl just smiled and got her wallet out to pay for the items. At that moment I caught a glimpse of her sweatshirt that emblazoned with the letters “AXΩ” and I realized that wasn’t just any red and green but the scarlet and olive of my beloved college sorority. I asked the girl who by now was just trying to get on her way,
“where are your carnations?”
She smiled and knew immediately that I knew she was a part of the sisterhood of Alpha Chi Omega, however she looked at me and asked
“how do you know about carnations?”
I replied
“I am a member of Alpha Chi.”
“Really, do you know our advisor, Stephanie?”
Guessing by my experience with collegiate advisors I imagined that “Stephanie” was probably not even 40 yet, which probably means we weren’t acquainted so I asked:
“How old is she?”
This perky young member of my sisterhood answered:
“Oh, really old.”
I thought it best at this point to smile and walk away and hope that “really old” was way more than 51!