Stepping onto a university's campus for the first time without knowing a soul is a bold move, and one that many freshman make every year. I was in that crowd, I had no idea what I was going to do with my college career--even considering Georgia Southern was a last minute thought. Upon arrival, I sought friends and found many lasting relationships in the engineering classes and dorms, but none as powerful as the brotherhood at Delta Chi.

Delta Chi, my freshman year, was only the fraternity in the run-down house across the street from the bar. There was a broken fence and beer cans littered the yard, but unlike the shabby appearance, the people had charisma, pride, and valued friendships; all characteristics of a strong brotherhood. Now in 2015 we have a brand new house, funded by what may be the most active alumni network in the nation. Our yard now has real grass and the parking lot is paved, but the core brotherhood values not only remain, they have grown stronger.

Every fraternity says they have a tight brotherhood and as an outsider it may be difficult to grasp. Many people say fraternity brotherhood is "buying friends," but that is a lie. When a man drives their brother to Augusta to treat 3rd degree burns and waits through the surgery, rescues a brother stranded in Hilton Head, and breaks up with a girlfriend because she drew the line, "Me or the fraternity"; that is brotherhood.

Brotherhood is coming together at the last minute to save a formal that was cancelled (which will go down in history as the greatest not-formal of all time), calling ten people out of the blue to help pick up a free broken hot tub that was found on craigslist (then using it to enjoy the first warm days of spring), and brotherhood is forming a plan to help a brother propose to his girlfriend. Brotherhood seems complicated at first, but when you experience it the definition is clear. This is more than the super-tight football team you went to the state championship with; this is the collaborative force of forty guys that somehow became best friends through college and remain life loyal. No, I did not "buy my friends." I bought into the idea that a brotherhood of college and university men may promote friendship, develop character, advance justice, and assist in the acquisition of a sound education.

Delta Chi has instilled in me the drive to succeed and excel while at college. I have become less shy as a person, grown as a man, and more importantly found the direction I wish to pursue on life. I did not become a cookie-cutter "frat boy," but have unwrapped the box to the person I have always wanted to be. Most of our brothers had no desire join a fraternity before college or may not have known what a fraternity is and upon meeting us were all-in; like me they also saw something truly worth becoming a part of. If you are going through rush this fall I cannot guarantee that Delta Chi is the fit for you, but every one of my brothers and I would not go anywhere else.