What is the first thing you think of when the word Greek comes to mind? Sorority? Fraternity? Many would describe the members of these organizations as partiers, egotistical individuals, and rich kids.  A lot of these people build these images of Greeks from TV shows, movies, reading bad reputations online, and sometimes from having a bad experience in one of the chapters. Yes, there are bad things affiliated with Greek Life. Let me emphasize that word for you: AFFILIATED. The number of times I hear someone bash Greek Life throughout a day is ridiculous. They say that it’s a cliquey society of rich kids who have no concern for the world outside of their extra large t-shirts and insane amount of allowance they receive every month. Now, I’m not saying there aren’t some people who live up to the typical stereotype people seem to think is true for every Greek out there, because there are. But that is the equivalent to saying every Asian on this campus has straight A’s and will be a doctor one day. That’s racist. Now stop being Greekist.             
Some people have been through the recruitment process and joined a sorority or fraternity and learned that Greek Life is not for them. Some even realized they weren’t meant to be involved with Greeks during rush. That’s okay. Greek Life is not for everyone, and we understand that. But if you had a bad experience with one particular group, it does not give you the right to speak badly about the other potentially great groups.             
Belittling the Greek society seems to be a trend nowadays, with some accusing us of being dumb or unassociated with other people. Here’s some knowledge for you. The Greeks are usually the groups on campuses with the highest GPAs. This is because the PanHellenic and Inter-Fraternity councils require a high GPA for the entire Greek community to obtain, which differs from school to school, but usually it is around a 3.1. Along with this, every chapter must meet their own goal that was set by their fraternity or sorority. Now for being involved with our campus and/or community, each fraternity or sorority has one (sometimes more than one) philanthropy in which all the time and money that the chapter fundraises for, goes to the philanthropy of choice. We each host a philanthropy event and raise thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars and keep nothing. We pay separately for our sorority’s needs, which are included in our dues.             Don’t mistake dues for the money you accuse us for buying our friends with. Every organization has some kind of monthly fee you have to pay. Dues can cover the money we spend for recruitment, the upkeep of our house, and our philanthropy, but not our friends that we make. We don’t buy our friends. We find them. The real world is all about connections, and most of the friends you make in a Greek organization or a different one help you in finding a job in the long run.             
The next time you want to judge the Greek community, remember that we are organizations to better our world and lives. You make your own experience, good or bad. So for the love of all that is good and pure, stop generalizing our community and give it a chance.