By definition, a sorority is a society for female students in a university or college, typically for social purposes.
Anyone can watch a movie that involves college parties or even watch the show Greek that was on ABCFamily years ago. I know that when I watched those movies and TV shows I had an instantaneous stereotype of what sorority girls were like. I vowed I never would become one of them. Sorority girls are so often portrayed as stupid, shallow, 6ft tall and 100lbs. They're shown going to parties every weekend and getting completely trashed to the point where they wake up and don't know where they are. It's a classic stereotype that every person has, and I did too.
When I came to college, I wanted to branch out of my comfort zone. I had been followed on social media by one of the Greek Life organizations at Rhode Island College but didn't really think anything of it. I was still dead set against not joining. On move-in day, the campus put on a huge activities night where the new freshmen could go and meet people and play games. When I was walking around with my suite mate, we were approached by two girls from Delta Phi Epsilon. They introduced themselves and asked us if we were interested in Greek Life. Now at this point I felt that I had a huge flashing light over my head that said "I don't want to join Greek Life but harrass me about it anyway".
Initially I was really annoyed that, yet again, I was reminded of this organization. At this point I said to myself I had to at least hear them out because they obviously see something in me that I didn't know I had. I listened to the two girls and they seemed extremely genuine. My suite mate decided that she wanted to go through recruitment but didn't want to go through it alone. I was coaxed into signing up. As it got closer to recruitment week, my suite mate realized she couldn't do it and opted out, but something in me told me that I needed to continue through the process. I didn't know if I wanted to be proved right by the stereotypes that I knew, or if a part of me wanted to be proved wrong. There was only one way to find out.
Going through the recruitment process, I realized that I do belong. I realized that most of the girls were 100% genuine and they really seemed like they all liked each other. I wanted that too. At the end of the week, I received my bid for Delta Phi Epsilon and on November 4th, 2016, I became the little sister to the girl who was able to change my mind.
Let me just say that I am 5ft something and much heavier than 100lbs. I have a 3.555 GPA and am in the honors program at Rhode Island College hoping to pursue a career in Health Care Administration. On the weekends, I can be found in my dorm room sleeping until 2 in the afternoon because I have a completely packed schedule full of honors courses that require 100% focus. I have a variety of sisters that I'll have a movie night with on "Thirsty Thursday" and we can be found watching The Lion King. I also know of a few of my sisters that received 4.0 GPA's this semester and I couldn't be more proud of them.
I would lastly like to address the notion that we don't pay for friends. The money that we spend each semester on dues isn't just money that goes randomly into space. That money is spent on our letter shirts that we proudly wear around campus, fundraisers that we put on each semester to raise money for our philanthropies, and some of it even goes to our National Headquarters to keep our sorority growing in schools across the nation.
I received these friends because we all shared something in common. I don't pay to have these girls be nice to me and say hi to me across the quad. I have plenty of friends outside of Greek Life who are just as important to me as my sisters. If anything, being in a sorority has made me more confident because I get to say that I have 40 people that I know will have my back no matter our differences. I didn't pay to have them feel this way. I don't stereotype you for wearing a baseball jersey or a superhero t-shirt, and I ask you to not stereotype me because I have Greek letters on my shirt.
