So I realize I might be preaching to the choir here, since a lot of the people who read this are a part of Greek life, but I feel that it is still something that should be addressed. I'm sure we have all gotten groans or dirty looks whenever we go back home and we tell someone we joined a fraternity or a sorority, because I know I have. A lot of times the reason these people have such bad opinions are due to a few misconceptions that I would like to clear up. If there are any extremely anti-Greek people out there that happen to be reading this, I am now talking to you.

So the comment I hear the most is that we pay for our friends. Yes, fraternities and sororities have membership dues. These cover living expenses, food, insurance, and allow the national organization to give its members more opportunities to grow. This doesn't, however, mean I paid for my friends. Most of the houses on campus have close to 100 people, you're not going to be friends with everyone. You're going to have a connection with everyone, but you'll still end up having your group of a few close friends. This is why when you rush, you join a house full of people that you'd be friends with outside of Greek life, because you get along with them. Plus, on the first day of any college orientation they say that if you want to make friends, join clubs. This is 100 percent true, but you know who else has dues? Most every club on campus. I don't see how clubs paying dues is any different than a Greek house paying dues.

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Speaking of money, some people think that our dues are insanely expensive. Now I don't know the cost to live in every house on campus, but I know that my house is actually cheaper than the dorms, and I'm pretty sure most are the same way. We even have ways for brothers to earn some extra money through scholarships if they really need help. Not every member of Greek life comes from a rich background, you'd be surprised by how hard some people in Greek life work to put themselves through college.

Another thing that worries people is what we have people do in order to join our brotherhood or sisterhood. Based off of the way movies depict pledgeship, it looks like it is basically a semester-long stint in a torturous prison. I promise you that 99 percent of the time, this is not the case. There are houses out there that do horrible things in the name of brotherhood, and are inexcusable in their actions, but these cases are outliers. How on Earth would a worldwide community of over nine million members be able to stay around if that happened everywhere? I for one have plenty of great memories from my pledge semester, and so do all of my friends who joined different houses.

We've all seen or heard about the typical "frat guy" stereotype. This varies from house to house, but not every frat guy goes to class in a visor, Vineyard Vines shirt, and Chubbies. And not every house is full of guys that treat TFM like a bible. First of all, if they want to dress like every day is the Kentucky Derby, who the hell cares? Bringing up the way the typical frat guy dresses is the most insecure argument against Greek life out there, and most of us take it as a joke to be honest. If you do rush a house and you get the feeling that they are a southern clothing company's wet dream, then don't join that house. No one will force you to. I promise you there is another house out there that is more your style. Greek life has helped me so much the past couple years, and it angers me whenever people think I'm a certain way because of a few assumptions that are clearly wrong.