Going through rush as a freshman in college is a daunting task. It's a week that will help shape your college experience, if not change it entirely. Naturally, there are a lot of things to consider when choosing the place you will be tied to for the next four years. One of the biggest concerns people seem to have are sleeping porches, as there is nothing stranger than sleeping in a giant room with twenty or thirty other people you just met. Living in the Sigma Nu house, I've gone through the whole porch experience, and in my opinion, it was one of my favorite aspects of Greek life.

For those who do not know what a sleeping porch is, basically when there isn't enough room to put all the beds in each room of the house there is usually one large room dedicated to bunk beds, with the normal rooms just having a couch or a desk. Now, how the sleeping porches are laid out depends on the house. Some fraternities have one massive porch for all the members regardless of class, some are separated by class, and others can even have three-high bunks. The Sigma Nu house has three porches, one for the freshman, one for the sophomores, and one that the juniors and seniors both share.

So why is the sleeping porch so great? All of my best memories happen on the porch. It's the only room in the house that truly is just for your class, giving you the freedom to do whatever you like up there. It's also where you come together for the first time and really start to see what college is all about. Waking up with 20 of your best friends after a long Friday night is one of the funniest things you will ever experience. Everyone shares stories up there, we occasionally drink up there, even some of the upperclassmen stop by to tell a few stories from their freshman year. The real class bonding happens on the porch, and the porch is truly the first college experience you have.

Alright, sleeping porches are pretty cool, but what about actually sleeping in them? For the most part, I never had many problems sleeping on the porch, however, there can be a few other drawbacks. Generally, I go to sleep pretty late, so people running around and making a ton of noise was never really an issue, that being said, on big party nights don't expect to go to bed early unless you have some ear plugs. Now probably the biggest worry everyone has is getting sick. Yeah, a bunch of college age guys all sleeping six feet away from each other isn't the most sanitary sleeping arrangement, but if you keep yourself clean and try and get a window bed, you won't be bothered much.

In general, people seem a bit turned off by the idea of sharing a room with your entire pledge class, and yes, it definitely seems like a terrible idea, but it was hands down one of the greatest aspects of my house. It's one of those things that you need to experience in order to truly appreciate, but I am yet to meet anyone who doesn't love their porch and the memories it has, be it putting your blacked-out pledge brothers to bed at 6 am only to have them fall off the top bunk, or sharing stories of the night before when you wake up still drunk. The porch becomes a part of your life like no other room in that house, and the freshman porch especially, will always have a place deep down inside.