I interviewed a few people that don't live in a sorority house (boys and girls, greek and non-greek) about what they think life is like living in a sorority house. I'm here to set the record straight.
"It's a party all the time."
Real Life: Yes, it is loud all the time, which is not necessarily a good thing when you have an 8 AM.
"You have to look perfect all the time."
Real Life: I've stayed in my pajamas all day on more than one occasion....okay maybe more than 10 occasions. And they aren't cute pajamas, I'm talking dad's 10 year old sweatshirt with bleach stains.
"You share everything."
Real Life: Yes, we do share a lot. But there are times I find myself in a room that only 10 girls in my house know about, avoiding all "where are you" texts so I don't have to give up my secret hiding spot.
"You live in a mansion."
Real Life: Oh wow...I'm not even sure where to start with this one. Yes, our house is pretty big, but it's definitely not what it's like in the movies. We have our typical leaks, occasional broken faucets and we share rooms with an obscene amount of people (shoutout to the 16 girls that share a room).
"You all have boyfriends in the fraternity next door."
Real Life: You might become best friends with them, or they might use you for late night hang outs in your kitchen where they steal all of your food.
"Pillow fights. Endless pillow fights."
Real Life: Nope.
"All you do is party."
Real Life: Well, we do a few other things, too (maintaining a solid GPA, funding multiple philanthropies, running events on camps, just to name a few).
"You all get ready together in a huge bathroom."
Real Life: When we have a big event, you have to shower hours before to make sure you don't have to wait in a line at the last minute.
"It's easy to diet."
Real Life: HA. Tell that to the 15 pounds I've gained this semester from having unlimited access to bagels.
"You fight over boys all the time."
Real Life: Well this happens anywhere. But there are more fights over who stole whose late plate out of the fridge, or who is using both washing machines on the 3rd floor, than fights over boys.
"Every person is raging bitch for one week a month, if you catch my drift."
Real Life: I don't know the science behind cycles syncing, but PMS stands for PRE-menstrual syndrome, not DURING-menstrual syndrome. If people are bitchy for a whole week I think that's more of an attitude issue than a hormonal issue.
"You're all fake friends."
Reality: After living with people you get to know them for who they are. Living in a sorority house actually minimizes the fake friendships as you get to appreciate people for their true selves.
As you can see, we don't have a confetti cannon in the Delta Nu foyer that goes off whenever someone passes a test (Legally Blonde reference), we don't have a "greek hottie ranking" that turns Kappa sisters against each other (Sydney White reference) and we definitely don't have an ex-Playboy Bunny as the Zeta Alpha Zeta house mom (House Bunny reference). And for the record, our house mom is WAY better than an ex-Playboy Bunny.