Greek life in college can be a lot of things. It can be thrilling, intimidating, stressful, amazing, and fun all in one. Many people make fun of Greek life for being a cult — and I'm not too mad at them honestly. When you join a sorority or fraternity, they say that you're joining something bigger than yourself, which is true. You're joining a philanthropy, a specific chapter, a huge loving group of people — and a stereotype.

Stereotype all stemmed from high school. You know, the usual, the jocks, nerds, goths, theatre kids, teacher pets, and whatever (just go watch mean girls to know the true 'groups' of high school stereotypes). Unfortunately, this doesn't end after high school. Yeah, it gets better, but never goes away entirely. One specific stereotype of Greek life is obviously that we pay for our friends and party all of the time — but how about each sorority and fraternity? Have you heard stereotypes about each one on campus?

I bet you have, which is actually kind of awful.

As much as I love what my letters stand for and how we share the same values, I just want to ask one question: do you see me beyond my letters? I fear that people judge who I am off of an appearance of Greek letters, displaying that a.) I'm in a sorority and 2.) which one. Yes, we have some similarities within each sorority, but that doesn't mean that we are made into these cookie-cutter type of girls. Each is an individual with different strengths, passions, and troubles. It's time for people to see that.

I bet you didn't know that Anna was a theatre kid in high school, Alyssa had family issues growing up seeing her parents fight every night and that Talia is pre-med and wants to be a doctor.

Take a chance to meet various boys and girls within different organizations and branch out because nobody would've guessed that I was involved with Greek life, but I love it and I love being involved in other activities as well. There's no cookie-cutter Greek life member, so don't treat them like there is. Don't treat them as a stereotype, their stereotype. There's more to people than meets the eye.

We are all beyond our letters and beyond Greek life. Next time you see somebody in their Greek letters, I want you to approach them like they're the human beings with a story, not just walking greek letters.