“You always end up exactly where you’re meant to be,” is a quote that means a lot to Tennessee Gamma Emily Smith. She believes every path you go down and roadblock you may hit puts you where you’re supposed to be.

Although she in only in her sophomore year in college, she has had enough experiences to have a better understanding of what quote means. Emily grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee where the University of Tennessee Knoxville (UT) is located, which is why she initially thought she wanted to attend a school far away. Emily spent her first year of college on a softball scholarship, but did not like it. She told her parents she wanted to come home and she did.

Emily needed to find a way to connect to her new school, UT, because she was living at home and commuting to campus. It was harder to meet new friends as a commuter student who wasn’t on campus full time. Fortunately, she found the connection she needed by joining Pi Phi. And it has been one of the best experiences thus far.

One of her favorite memories from her first year in Pi Phi is Lip Sync, an annual event in which New Member classes from the various Panhellenic organizations work together to choreograph dances and lip-sync a performance. Money raised from the performance event goes to Habitat for Humanity, leaning upwards of $18,000 for the organization. In the process, the women practice up to six hours a week.

This is how Emily made some of her closest friends. Since she was a commuting student, Emily always had her car and was able to drive a group of women from the dorms to the chapter house for rehearsals. The group would often get dinner prior or hang out with each other after rehearsals. This was the launching point for their special friendships.

“I never saw myself as a sorority type person because I was always an athlete,” says Emily. “But the sorority is like a team, and I have grown up on playing on teams. Walking away from softball, I wasn’t sure I would find a team again. But I did.”