As a Greek system, we all struggle with time commitment issues. Whether it is making it to chapter on time, dealing with your classes, or trying to fit everything in your schedule each week, we all get weighed down with activities and situations that put us under a lot of stress all the time. 

Here are just a few of the many reasons you and your fellow Greek friends may be stressed all the time:

1. Chapter. Every week there is an hour or two that we block off to attend our chapter meeting. This is typically mandatory and if you do not attend, then you feel like you have missed out on all vital events and information that is given each week (which in college feels like a month).
2. Socials. Granted there isn't ALWAYS a social each week, there certainly are enough socials to make a person exhausted. However, each social is a completely different atmosphere, theme, and memory that you cannot afford to miss. That one social you want to miss could be the social of the year everyone will never stop talking about. Plus, after classes it is a good break to go have fun and meet more greeks!
3. Study Hours. As if school is not enough time commitment on it's own, most chapters add on study hours for the members to complete. This is done to ensure that chapter GPA is competitive against the other organizations. It certainly teaches the importance of academic success to the members, however a couple hours each week in the library tends to be harder than it looks with all the other events going on.
4. Philanthropy. Greek organizations allocate extensive amounts of time to community service. It is a vital part of every chapter success to complete not only chapter community service events, but individual service hours as well. This helps each member grow and become humble. It helps us understand why we joined our organization to begin with. But philanthropy is one that tends to be put on the back burner as well with every other events that go on each month. 
5. Leadership. As individuals in each chapter we have to be well-rounded and learn how to become leaders in our community as well. Each chapter tries to help each member understand we have to be active not only in our organization but on campus and in the community as well. This not only helps with networking, but it definitely helps each member understand the full idea of time-management.
6. School. Along with everything going on in our Greek Community, we still find a way to make sure we are still going to class, doing our homework, and perhaps getting tutored. Being Greek, we live in this world that is a surreal atmosphere. We forget about actual life events because the Greek life can be so time consuming. The stereotype of Greeks missing class, or forgetting their homework is often false (with few exceptions for sure) because in the long run, a member in the Greek Community couldn't afford to miss class if they wanted too. 
7. Intramurals. If you don't know what being competitive means, then you have certainly never watched a game against apposing Greek organizations. Sports are definitely something we all take pride in, and any friendly competition that is available, we will compete. This not only includes our games, but this can be time-consuming as well because there are often practices and tournaments that are participated in as well which you attend.
8. Greek Life Speakers. I don't know how it is as other school's but I know at mine, this gets taken very seriously, we have a certain amount of the chapter mandated to go to these events. They are often long, and take up a lot of time in one's day. This may seem like something stupid, but they are highly educational when taken seriously, but on top of everything else we attend, this is by far the one we wish to skip out on. 
9. Workshops. Each organization has things that must be taught to it's members. Whether is ritual workshops; or new member workshops where you learn about standards and the council positions; or workshops that there to help with recruitment; or really anything at all. There always seems to be some visitor or speaker that comes to talk to our chapter to benefit our experience as a Greek Life Member.
10. Sisterhood/Brotherhood events. These are my favorite events that take place. However, they do take up a lot of time and effort to attend, especially during test week. For my sorority they happen more than others and these events could be anything from roasting s'mores in the sorority house, and watching movies, to going away for the weekend on a sisterhood retreat. They are there for bonding with your sisters (or brothers) and strengthening those bonds. They are the most important I feel, and definitely are one of the events that cannot be missed. 
11. EXT. Now these events to me could be all the extra events we have, or sign up for that help our chapter as a whole. These can be our committees, the expectation to paint sheet signs, decorate posters, help with PR stuff, signing up for homecoming campaigning, on campus events that we go to or any other possible event or thing that usually only GREEK LIFE member participate in. It takes up what I think is the most amount of time, because these are the events and activities that load up our schedule and stresses us out the most. 

With all the events events, comes an expectation that you must complete them. So if you come across a Greek Member that looks stressed, take a moment to understand why they are. If you are a non-Greek and don't understand what we do... try to picture all of these events and understand it is more that comes with Greek Life than parties and "paying for friends."