People get involved in Greek life for an abundance of reasons. It sounds cool. Their parents did it. They want to be involved. Whatever the reason may be, this guarantee is true: Greek life makes the University of Alabama so much more. I've only been in it for a couple of months now, and I wouldn't want it any other way.
The University of Alabama has almost 40,000 enrolled students this semester. So the campus can feel kinda big when you're literally one of 40,000. Thanks to the rush process (which started one month before school did) I was only one out of 2,000 rushing girls. The thing about rush week is that there are so many girls who are like you. You instantly meet so many people, because you're all doing the same thing. Once rush is over and you're actually in a sorority, you're now down to one of 400. It still may seem like a large group of people, but each house has the same ideas, morals, and values. Within the first couple of week of being in a house, I had already found my sisters for life. Without them, I still would've felt like one out of 40,000.
Along with the lower classmen of any sorority, there will always be upperclassmen. These older girls are not mean and scary. They are 100% there for anyone who may need it. For example, the day before school started this year, one of the older girls looked at my schedule and saw that I would definitely be struggling. Without hesitation, she fixed my schedule and saved my first semester of college. Within greek life at Alabama, there are so many connections and opportunities opened up to you.
Involvement sororities and fraternities are not only involved in partying. Many Greek students are involved in things on campus such as Student Government, Honors College, and even sports. This involvement is important to greek life because it sets out a great name to a certain house or chapter. Also, certain involvement through one member can spread throughout a house, leading other people wanting to get involved. It's a great way to be in more than one thing on campus.
Lastly, each house has their own philanthropy, which they base many events and donations for. They range from domestic violence awareness prevention to St. Jude's Research Hospital. The cool thing about it, though, is that everyone in Greek life supports each other. So if one house has a philanthropy event, all the houses go. It's not mandatory or required, but something everyone loves to do because not only are the events fun and you get to do them with your sister, but it's always for a great cause.
Greek life at Alabama may seem overwhelming or huge to some, but at the end of the day, it's filled with thousands of people committed to a cause. No matter what kind of day I'm having, I know I have a group of people, a family, if you will, there for me no matter what. Greek life is one of the qualities that make the university whole, and I could not imagine this campus without it.
