When I was on my way up to meet and network with the sisters of the sororities here at the University of Tampa, I was scared out of my mind. I never saw myself as the typical 'sorority girl', I had never partied in high school, I wasn't a size 0 and bleach blonde. But to my surprise, neither were they. I mean, there were a few girls that you would look at and be like 'Yeah okay, I see the sorority-ness', but the group was nothing like what you'd imagine. Normally the sound of 70 plus people talking in one room all at once would send me in the other direction, but I couldn't help but be pulled in. After talking to some of the girls from each sorority, I practically ran back to my room to sign up for recruitment.
I was counting down the days to recruitment and could not contain my excitement when that Thursday came near and I put on my sleek gray Panhellenic Recruitment shirt with my ripped white jeans and made my way to the only thing standing in between me and recruitment: Environmental Science class. But that came to an end (after an eternity) and I sprinted to the courtyard to meet my Rho Gammas. Now, the whole process was one to remember, between meeting what felt like an army of girls in each room and the blisters quickly developing on my feet from my heels, the recruitment process was a weekend that I feel like happened just yesterday event though it's been about a month and a half. Bid day was my absolute favorite, I started crying when I turned around and discovered that I had gotten my first pick, Kappa Alpha Theta.
The girls I had met from that day on had become my role models and friends. They were so sweet and welcoming that I knew that I had found my home in Theta. But my whole point of this isn't to convince you to go Theta, but just to open your eyes to the idea of going Greek at all. I will be the first to say that I had always wanted to be in a sorority, but was also extremely scared by the stigma that they had gotten from things like movies and stories you hear floating around from your high school alumni and what the sorority girls have to do at their school. But in reality, that stigma of sorority girls and Greek life is in no way true. And this often clouds people's judgment on whether or not to rush. But it was honestly the best decision I had ever made. I already feel like part of the Theta family and that if I needed help, those girls would help me.
And each sorority and fraternity has a philanthropy that they work with and fundraise for, and it creates a sense of family within their groups and gives them a bigger purpose. The members work and come together to support their philanthropy and spread the awareness of it and their organization. And everyone involved in a Greek Organization that I have met has sworn that they wouldn't change a thing that they've done.
Greek life isn't about partying, flunking classes, or wearing certain outfits, and it is way more than just some, as some put it, expensive cult. Greek life has already opened so many doors for me and has taught so much about myself. So before you go bashing sororities and fraternities and calling us all 'crazy partiers', take a look at the reality of what we do. We work together to make the world a better place and spread awareness for important issues in the world. We create families that provide support within itself and outward towards other organizations. We are more than a stereotype. We are Greek.
