It seems that, every spring, rising college freshmen go on a scramble to get recommendation letters, go to recruitment parties and just try to get their foot in the door of their favorite fraternity or sorority. And most people are pretty good at it. Their parents were in ABC Greek organization and have friends who were in XYZ, and rec letters come so frequently that it’s like junk mail. They wonder why they were ever worried at all.

But that wasn’t me. My dad is Lebanese and went to a technical college while my mother was a saleswoman right off the bat. They didn’t have the typical college experience, so those stories of the good ole days sound a lot different. When it came time for me to decide what path I would take, I thought "why not" and decided to rush — if you count only making it to orientation before running away as quickly as I possibly could.

I signed up, got my rec letters and a complimentary T-shirt, but I just couldn’t do it. I sat there at orientation, listening, looking around at the other girls who were glowing at the opportunity to be a part of a sisterhood, and realized that I just didn’t glow. It was like, while I was in the bathroom, a spray tan mist of glitter and rainbows covered all the girls, and I looked like I had just spent the last six years indoors.

For a while, I thought it was a bad thing that I didn’t find a home in Greek Life. I felt that I wouldn’t have as much fun, wouldn’t go to as many parties or make as many friends if I weren't in a sorority. It was like, to be someone, you had to be a part of something, and I just couldn’t get myself to agree with that.

But I realized quickly, watching the girls I knew in high school join sororities and the boys I had known pledge their allegiances to different fraternities, that being in a sorority or fraternity doesn’t make you better or worse than anyone else, just different. You are part of an organization that I am not. You do philanthropic events for things I am not a part of. You host and attend parties that I am probably scared to go to, but that’s OK. And that’s what we GDIs (goddamn independents as they call us) have to realize. We are not less attractive, less funny or less awesome just because we decided to go a different route. We are just different.

I don’t want anyone to get me wrong here. I have no problem with sorority or fraternity life. One of my closet friends is in a sorority, and I love her just as much with or without her letters.

It is the right choice for a lot of people, and a lot of people benefit from it, but maybe I just didn’t get that gene. Or maybe it was how I was raised, but honestly, it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, no matter what you affiliate with, in any aspect of your life, it is OK because it’s yours. Your life is in your control, and being you — whether committing to Greek Life or committing to running as far from it as possible — is OK. Because no one knows you like you, and you know what's best for you.

I am a GDI, and I am GDProud.