Being a part of a fraternity has forever changed my life for the better and gave me an experience in college I would never trade for the world. Yes, there is the occasional parties and whatnot but it gave me opportunities for leadership, volunteer opportunities, networking and most importantly a home away from home.
I actually knew quite a bit of them before I even joined. I was a part of another fraternity at the time during my first semester in the fall of 2016, and the thing was I wasn't even interested in Greek life at first before joining. Things were going well initially during my first semester after a while though that organization didn't felt like a home to me, and I was also naïve in my thinking at the time and was trying to navigate life in college on my own for the first time. So there was a period where I wasn't going to join another organization until I got myself together and figure things out.
Well as the winter semester progressed a little, someone would give me a flyer to one of the recruitment events, and that very same someone would also become my big and give me advice that I can say helped me in the long run. Fast forward to today, and I can say I am a vastly different person now than who I was 3 years ago. That is not only due to my experience as a college student, but my experience as a part of Greek life at Eastern Michigan; an experience with my home away from home Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity.
Being a part of the fraternity has given me opportunities that I wouldn't have thought possible and gave me lessons into not only being a better man but a better leader as well. Delta Sigma Phi gave me a feeling of family and a good support on campus that I desperately needed. Whether that's trying to get help with setting up events, talking about my personal issues, gaining valuable friendships that I wouldn't think happen, and helping me grow to be a better person each and every day.
Like any organization, we do have our fair share of things we need to work on but we do our best to fix them and make ourselves better. I can say that a few don't like me, but they do respect me and I respect them. Each brother whether I've known them for a while, or just getting to know them have taught me very important lessons about life, dealing with depression, not caring what others think, being myself, being active on campus, taking care of myself, and giving me constructive criticism so that I can work on myself and be better. They have given me many opportunities to take part in the community, gave me skills into becoming a better leader, knowing when it's time to speak or not, and giving me the confidence to be more of myself.
