On a campus where social media is embedded into everyone’s minds, rumors and opinions of sororities spread like wildfire. When one person posts something, everyone reacts, and there’s no stopping it. From the outside, you take what you read or hear as true. From the inside, you know that nothing said is true and you do all you can to ignore it. So this is me not ignoring it any longer.

Being in a sorority isn’t something that I thought I needed in my life when picking what college to attend a few years ago. Some people grow up and spend their whole time thinking about what it will be like when they’re finally in Greek life. I, on the other hand, took it as something that I would try out, and if I didn’t like it then I didn’t like it. But it turned out that I did like it, and it’s something that I regret not being excited about my freshman year.

I was lucky enough to go through recruitment without apps such as Yik Yak breathing down my back. I was lucky enough to be able to make my own decisions without listening to rumors and worrying about what will happen if I join a certain sorority. Nowadays, things girls have read on Yik Yak made them not even want to try recruitment. I’ve never heard so many girls not want to rush because they didn’t want to be judged or deal with the Yik Yak drama. There were so many times when I wanted to say just try it and you’ll see what Greek life is really about. I wish I would have said something.

I’m happy for the girls that gave recruitment a chance, because they didn’t let the negative side of social media get in the way of finding their place on campus. Because, when girls go through recruitment, they see us for who we really are, not for something someone may have said about us on Yik Yak or other social media sites.

I pay dues, I don’t pay for my friends. The girls in my sorority chose to be friends with me, they weren’t forced. It just so happens that we get along, and what’s so wrong with that? We don’t only hang out with our sorority, truth is most of our friends went different ways when it came down to choosing which sorority to be in. When we see something on social media, we only see it. We don’t see it for what it’s worth, because for me, an opinion from someone who knows nothing about my sorority is an opinion that is worth nothing.

We choose what we want to believe, and not everything is worth believing.