Dear Greek Life,

I have a love-hate relationship with you. Your organizations are known to do some good works, and there are many benefits to joining an institution of your caliber, but alas, I still cannot fathom any decent reason why I should join your institutions...

Disregarding the news, stereotypes and regular facts, why should I pay exuberant amounts of money to join a Greek organization? I'm constantly bombarded by reasons why: networking opportunities, friendship, community service; those reasons still do not make a dent in my decision. Why is that? Because I can fulfill all those requirements without spending so much money.

For instance, I am a passively-introverted individual with an aggressively-intuitive mindset: it makes no sense why I would join an organization to make friends if I can just go out on a whim and talk to people randomly! That's what I did my freshman and sophomore years, and that is what I still do. I don't make friends to make friends: I make friends who can hold merit, and who I can respect as much as they respect me. In that sense, I hold more acquaintances than friends, as 'real' friends are hard to come by.

"I can fulfill all those requirements without spending so much money"

I've done plenty of community service in my life. I never really needed or used a membership in a community service organization for any of it until my senior year of high school. I lectored at a local church since my junior year and still do. I walk around and pickup garbage, even without an event to back my decision. I even pushed for services in clubs I was not a part of in high school so I would not have to run around and join organizations I would not normally join. Does that mean I should join a Greek organization? Possibly, but I don't see the point of it. Sure, it may be easier to be a part of community service projects within one, but because I understand the tedium of planning and event organization, I still don't see the point of joining one if I can do it myself.

Networking is an interesting one, and this point can receive a lot of backlash: why should I join an organization if I want to network? That may sound like an unintelligent question, which from my personal experience it is much worse, but hear me out. Paying an exuberant amount of money to join an organization that has contacts all over the place sounds stupid to me. It's similar to the problem within the gaming industry: pay-to-play. Money talks and bullshit walks reigns supreme in this area, as in some cases in employment, employees are hired over contact instead of merit.

"Money talks and bullshit walks"

Now this is one of the larger networking problems that I see. Greek organizations are normally student-run, which helps prepare students in developing leadership skills. Organizations usually hold a considerable amount of merit, but networking to higher positions just because the employer and the employee were a part of the same fraternity/sorority just screams immature nostalgia at me. For example, those who are in their forties, fifties, sixties, and so on, who continue to hang around their fraternities/sororities, showering them with financial gifts and unfair networking opportunities does not seem professional or realistic to me. Regular nostalgia is fine; everyone deserves to experience it from time to time. In this case, however, it seems that they left a vital piece of themselves. It does not look professional to me at all. It looks and feels much more insecure, as if they cannot let go of whatever good things happened in university for them, unlike others, who can look back and appreciate it.

If I wanted to join an organization that could cater professionalism, fraternity, and networking, I can easily find one that is cheaper, better for my being in the long run, and straight-up mature.

For instance, I am a Knight of Columbus. It is a religious fraternity created in the mid 1800s by Father Michael J. McGiveny in New Haven, Connecticut, to help aid Catholic families. They were persecuted, abused, and underpaid, and so a group of men came together at a local church, paid small dues, and helped the community. If a member died, much of the dues would go to their family in as much as a year's salary, helping the family get back on its feet. Because of that philosophy, I am blessed to go on community services projects with the organization, and I know that a lot of the dues I pay go towards helping my brothers at the ends of their lives, including mine as well.

"It looks and feels much more insecure, as if they cannot let go of whatever good things happened in university for them, unlike others, who can look back and appreciate it."

Another organization, the Freemasons, exists, where men can join and be a part of fraternity made of many religions, beliefs, and faiths, where they do community service anonymously as gentlemen should.

Both organizations are secretive, but they have one major similarity:

You did not have to wait until college to join one!

Both organizations, like others of the kind, only required you to be eighteen years of age to join! You could've been a part of an organization that was cheaper and far more mature in high school than waiting another year. You are already ahead of the curve, both personally and mentally, and you receive a more professional pedigree in the process.

I'm a businessman: I look for efficiency, intelligence, ability, common sense, and respect. Hearing about the amounts of money you'd spend on a fraternity/sorority, the penalties, what has been happening in the news, it shows that none of them essentially show a majority of the five. So why would I join?

So, Greek Life, I disregard any apology that some may believe I owe you for not joining any of your organizations. If anything, many of you do good work, but I don't see any shred of evidence that outweighs the cons.

Sincerely,

DJ Farrelly