Recently, I’ve been reading articles about all the different sorority stereotypes that have been going around the internet and I’m honestly annoyed by all the ignorant things that I have read. Society sucks sometimes, for real. I’ve noticed that a lot of these stereotypes are perpetuated by things like the media, or one person’s experience. However, these things ,can be so different from what Greek life is really about. So many negative rumors and stereotypes such as hazing, mixers, drinking, and sex take over the many positive reasons to go Greek. Going Greek doesn’t necessarily make for a better college experience, but it has truly changed me for the better. Greek life does have many good aspects, and just a few of them are shown below.

We actually care about our grades.

I don’t know about every one else, but I feel that my grades are my main priority. If it’s not, why are you even in college? Your career job that you apply for in the future depend a lot on your grades, so wouldn’t it make sense to actually try? My sorority requires us to have a minimum GPA of a 2.5, so the pressure is on for us. Also, majority of us really want to be successful or just smart. So, we don’t need to be pushed by incentives to get our work done.

We are not all rich.

There are always going to be people from different social classes in all organizations and I don’t feel that we should be judged for the people who do have a little more money than the rest of us. Also, if they do, who cares? It’s no one’s business anyways. I currently don’t have a job and my parents are retired, so there’s no way in hell that I should be considered ‘rich.’ I struggle every month to pay my bills by the due date. So, God bless our treasurer for being lenient and allowing me to give her a date I can pay and how much I can pay.

We are not always drunk, and we don't haze.

A lot of people live for parties and say that partying is a huge part of the college experience. I mean, I like getting all dressed up and socializing as much as the next person, but we actually do bigger and better things with our spare time. We all have classes to attend, appointments, shifts for work, and so many philanthropy events that occur on the weekends and there’s always a huge show out from the Greek community. And believe it or not, we’re actually sober for all of these! Who would’ve thought right? Also, speaking on behalf of my own sorority, hazing destroys the point of being able to call this a sisterhood. No sisters should want to purposely force others to do something they don’t want to do. It’s so cruel to think about.

We don't sleep around.

Without a doubt, there are so many college students that engage in sexual activities. It’s a natural thing to do. There are so many of my sisters that are in serious relationships and a couple that are engaged and they are always respectful of their significant others and themselves. Believe it or not, we actually have morals.

We do not pay for our friends.

We pay to prepare ourselves for our big-girl-jobs. We pay to give to our philanthropy and other organizations. We pay for leadership opportunities. We pay to keep this sorority up and running. Our monthly dues, however, cannot cover friendship. I think Bid Day is a great representation of friendship. We hardly know most of these girls and we’re so excited to welcome them into our chapter. You obviously won’t be close with every single girl, but you receive what you put in, so if you don’t go to events, you more than likely won’t make as many new friends. But basically, the friendships you build within your sorority are so much more valuable than any price could pay.

There is a saying that us sorority girls love to say: “From the outside, you can never understand it. From the inside, you can never explain it.” My sisters mean the world to me, and to hear stereotypes such as these, hurts me to think that me or my sisters are thought of this way. My experience in my sorority has been amazing and I hope that this can open everyone’s mind to sororities and to live above the stereotypes and rush. After all, you can’t knock it until you try it.