Crazy to think its been one year already. Hard to believe I’ve been a brother for this long because it honestly just feels like I was handed my bid card yesterday. Needless to say, this year has been quite a journey. Freshman year at Carnegie Mellon is usually never easy for students who sailed through high school with minimal effort, and being surrounded by a group of such amazing brothers has certainly helped me find my niche. So to open, thank you for the wonderful past, present, and future experiences that you have given me Penn Theta.
I never saw myself rushing a fraternity in college. Back home I had a tight group of friends and we often mocked how trivial Greek Life was. However, upon coming to college, I decided to go out of my comfort zone and rush a number of fraternities to see what Greek Life could offer. After much consideration (and extremely meaningful conversation), I joined Sigma Phi Epsilon and it's the best decision of my college career.
Being surrounded by such a respectable and caring brotherhood gives me so much strength and affirmation in my passions. Never do I feel pressured or embarrassed to pursue my interests, nor do I ever feel that I’m constantly being judged. Greek Life is more than superficial friendships and constant ragers; instead, Greek Life is entirely what you make of it and it thrives on the very members who invest their time and effort within their brotherhood or sisterhood. And for those who believe Greek Life is built upon “buying your friends,” well, in a sense you’re right. However, you “pay” in your efforts and time you invest with your brothers or sisters.
To my fellow freshmen, you guys are a bunch of savages. Literally, I could not ask for a better group of guys to go through college with and eventually become leaders of the house as we grow in age and wisdom. We may not always see eye to eye and we certainly do not always get along. However, at the end of the day, we are brothers and every single one of you mean so much to me. I’d take a bullet for you guys, so thank you for leaving (and continuing to do so) such a strong impression on me.
To the graduating seniors, I will certainly miss all of you. While I may not have deep personal connections with all of you, I do have a bond of brotherhood and I hope in these last 2 weeks that I’ll be able to spend more time with you guys. For the seniors that I’ve developed close relationships with, It’s going to be incredibly hard to say goodbye. However, the difficulty won’t be saying goodbye; instead, the difficulty will be waiting all that time for your return. SigEp will miss all of you and I wish you the best in all your future endeavors. Go out and kill it, boys. HFF and VDBL.
Finally, to my entire fraternity and my brothers that I’ll have more time with, I’m eagerly looking forward to all the memories and meaningful experiences. I can’t wait to spend another year with the best brotherhood in the world.
Forever and always proud to be a SigEp,
Will Crouch
