To be quite honest, I was never really a huge fan of Greek life. During my freshman year, I wandered around campus with my new friends, passing by several sororities and fraternities that were tabling in their attempts to recruit new members. The girls wearing their Greek letters smiled and giggled loudly as they sat at their tables, staring at one another and at the iPhones gripped in their well-manicured hands. I looked back at them as I walked into the food court and I snorted to myself. From what I had seen in movies and on television, girls in sororities were essentially unintelligent, promiscuous individuals, and guys in fraternities were just huge, alcoholic party animals. After hearing tons of rumors about the Greek organizations at my school, those stereotypes I had seen soon became a reality. I would go with my friends to mixers and to rush events, but I would silently mock the girls behind their backs. I convinced myself that they were pretending to like my friends and myself. Why on Earth would anyone want to pay for friends, let alone be hazed relentlessly by girls who acted like they were obsessed with you only a week earlier? I figured that their parties and that their "philanthropies" were just completely overrated.
When Bid Week arrived, my friends cried in excitement as I rolled my eyes. I figured I was going to lose them to their sororities and I might as well just give up now. However, I was proven wrong, and on so many other occasions after Bid Week. My friends underwent dry pledging periods and so they were not allowed to go out to parties. Being the young, smart individual I was, I decided to stay in as well, figuring that I would keep them company. I found out that pledging was nothing I had imagined it to be, in the slightest. My friends were given sheets with information about their sororities, such as the founders and the colors of the organization. The had to learn the Greek alphabet as well, and the core values of their respective sorority. They were not hazed but had to be able to know everything about their sorority and so they studied the material day after day, in addition to keeping up with their normal course load.They had to maintain a 3.0 to be able to maintain their membership, and this surprised me. I began to see that maybe those stereotypes I had witnessed weren't so accurate after all. My friends were finally initiated, and the happiness on their faces when they came home wearing their letters made me want to swallow my words. I regretted not rushing for quite a while. Junior year, fall semester rolled around, and I found myself staring at posters to rush the community service fraternity at my school. I remembered everything that I had ever said to my friends when they were rushing during freshman year...and I shook my head and decided to try it myself. After meeting with the brothers and seeing what they were all about, I decided to rush. I received a bid and pledged for six weeks, fully immersing myself into this organization, much like my friends had done. As I was being initiated, I looked around the room and smiled to myself. I had surprised my friends, but most importantly, I had surprised myself. I became a part of something bigger by going Greek. My pledge class is a group of individuals that I will share a close bond with for the rest of my life, and my fraternity is something that I am proud to discuss with others. I guess Blue Mountain State and all of those other movies and shows really had me convinced that there was no good in Greek. It's what you make of it, and my friends and I did our best.
