When you hear the word “brotherhood,” what do you think of? Is it the drunken nights when we walk someone home? The support we get after the loss of a loved one? Or just one of those times when we made a memory to look back on?

Non-Greeks stereotype us as “d-bags” or a “cult,” and have so many other false stereotypes about who we are. As Greeks, we see ourselves differently. From the inside looking out, it’s impossible to explain. From the outside looking in, it’s impossible to understand. Even being in Greek life, we may not understand the true meaning of brotherhood. That is the key question for all, Greek and non-Greek – what is the true meaning of brotherhood? 

Brotherhood is fellowship, an alliance, a feeling of friendship and understanding between one another. It's the bonding of young men of different backgrounds and beliefs who practice good faith in their fraternity values by following in their founder’s footsteps. We are brothers in the same fraternity because we share the same interests. We may not get along with every brother in the fraternity, but through thick and thin, we’ll back each other up. We even understand each other in the most drunken states of mind, and that’s pretty impressive.  

Most importantly, our brothers are there for support. They are there to pick us up if we’re going through hard times or a difficult breakup. They are there to help us study and pick up our grades in a class they already took and did well in. They are our drinking buddies, our go to guys for advice, our right hand men at a social. We’ll do anything for each other, even those brothers we aren’t sure of their name. We’ll let them crash on our couch after a rough night out, grab some beers with them after a long day of classes, get in a fight with them over something stupid, ask them to be our best man at our wedding, etc. I think you get the point.

These are only a few things that give you an idea of what brotherhood is. We all have our own chapters and I’m sure brotherhood may be different for most fraternities, but as we Greeks say, it’s hard to give one answer about brotherhood, because you need to join to experience what it really is. There is no one definition.

The brotherhood of Greek life is truly one of a kind.