Going home during school breaks is always fun, you get to meet up with friends you graduated with and you get to see the family members we may have been avoiding for months. It's all fun and games until someone insults your decision of being a member of such a messed up organization. We were taught to never judge a book by it's cover. Well, here are a few covers of ours.
1. All we do is drink.
Everyone has the right to consume alcohol at anytime. I'm not going to lie, we like to come up with many reasons to do it, but for people to say that's "all" we do, is not fair to any of us. My sorority alone has to complete 22 hours of community service and five hours of fundraising per person, per semester. That's more than the average college student.
2. Frat boys just want to sleep with you.
Let's start off by changing that to "fraternity men," overall, that's what they are. I've never had guy friends in high school, in fact, I never thought it was possible to just be friends with a guy. After joining a sorority I have made the best guy friends any girl could ask for. I could ask the gentlemen at Sigma Alpha Epsilon for help and I guarantee they would be there in a second, just like the men of Kappa Lambda Beta and Sigma Tau Gamma, it's just what they do. They give women the respect they deserve and I believe they deserve respect back.
3. Sorority girls are ditsy.
Every one of my sorority sisters can even. Our GPA requirements are 2.0 and we have no problem with meeting that requirement. We all have moments when saying something not so smart, but if you need help with any class, you could easily go to any one of us.
4. We pay for our friends.
I think we have all heard this before. The money we pay for our dues does not make us friends. We don't sit around at our meetings and pay someone $20 to watch movies with us. In fact, we make our friends by having the same connection of being in the same organization. But like any other comeback to this ridiculous stereotype, if we pay for our friends, we definitely aren't paying enough.
5. Getting initiated is the same as joining a cult.
I will admit, if you look into a room and see the lights off, a bunch of women in black, and all of us holding a candle, it's going to look a little sketchy. We did that to ourselves I suppose. But when you are initiated into a sorority or fraternity, you are not agreeing to hazing others, or whatever else cults do. You are agreeing to the commitment it entails, which is loyalty, service, friendship, etc.
6. Greek life is about hazing each other.
When there's one story on the news about hazing, everyone assumes we all do it. We don't. We have more important things to do then to sit around and hit each other with a paddle (which doesn't happen). Greek life is much more than that accusation. We are about hard work to make the community a better place. We are about the loyalty to our friends so no one feels as if they aren't important. We are about being one giant family and leaving no one behind.
7. Every social is a toga theme.
This is a suggestion most of the time.
8. The members joined just to party.
I joined to do service and to raise money for charities. I joined because going to college is intimidating and I wanted friends here to make myself feel more comfortable. I joined because it looks incredible on a resume. I also joined because I wanted a home away from home. The partying is a bonus and not all of us do it.
9. You have to look a certain way to get in.
If this is the case, then my sorority is doing something wrong. We are all different and unique in our own ways. We are not all tall, blonde, and big chested. In fact, none of us fits that exact description. That's okay. We don't want to be.
10. Mommy and Daddy pay for everything.
Where is this money I'm accused of getting? The members of the Greek community are some of the most hard working members I know. The majority have at least two jobs and still have no problem donating and supporting other organizations. Besides the point, how many of you wouldn't accept a small donation from your parents to be able to buy food? At least 99% of college students would say they would, but it's frowned upon if we do it?
Maybe this life isn't for you, maybe you were meant to be in a sport or in an art club, or maybe you weren't meant to join anything and just focus on your studies. We all want to be a part of something, but it's not fair to us if people that don't understand it, get the right to put a label on it.
