"And this is Greek Village. If you join a fraternity or sorority, your house will be down here. If Greek life doesn't seem like your thing, don't feel pressured to join one just to make friends or go to parties! Greek like only takes up about 21% of our student population; most people aren't Greek."
If you tour any bigger SEC school, they'll probably tell you something along these lines.
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They lie.
While 21% certainly isn't the majority of the student population, it sure can feel like it.
Greek life is like the clique in high school that ruled the school: They all seem to know each other somehow ("OMG! You know her? That's my roommate's best friend's little's twin!"). They know all the secrets about each other us outsiders are blind to ("She's a Zeta? Ugh, you know what that means." No...what does that mean?). And no matter what anyone says, the big parties and big tailgates, the ones you fantasize about going to before you get to college, yeah, pretty much all of those are Greek parties, ones you can't get into without letters or an invite or both.
They tell you that you won't be missing out on much if you don't rush. They're wrong. You're gonna miss out on stuff. And even if you're the most independent GDI out there, at some point, you're going to be slightly envious of the functions and letters and all those really cool t-shirts, especially if a lot of your friends are Greek.
Ah, to be a GDI, a loud and proud g*dd**n independent. It's freeing and liberating, and at times you do get the best of both worlds, but don't listen to your tour guide say that you won't even notice if you don't rush because you definitely will. Here's what it's really like to be a GDI.
"Throw what you know!"
You just shrug.
Going to a Greek function can be weird.
It's true that you can experience some of the Greek world if you're not Greek. Your friends can take you to their functions, you can go to their parties, listen to their stories about the inside workings of their specific organizations. It's not impossible.
But when you do, it can be weird.
I never had the urge to join a sorority in high school. The idea never appealed to me, and the thought of having to deal with that many girls in one place honestly makes me want to run in the other direction.
However that doesn't mean the functions don't intrigue me: you get to dress up, party with your friends, get a cool t-shirt, why wouldn't you want to go to one?
I've been to exactly one official Greek function at my school. And while I had a blast and loved going, it was weird at the same time. I felt like an outsider, like I didn't belong there, and like everyone knew it.
Girls who somehow all seemed to know each other pulled me into their group pictures when they noticed me standing off to the side with the guys taking the pictures. It was nice of them, but it made me feel slightly pathetic more than anything: "What sorority are you in? Oh you're not? It's ok."
There was also an air that everyone else knew something I didn't, and to this day, I'm still not sure what that was, but the vibe was definitely there.
Luckily for me, I wasn't on a random set-up date, I was with my best friend who knew I wasn't Greek, knew I didn't know that world, and didn't mind explaining everything to me when I didn't understand.
You'll get function-envy.
Despite how weird being the outsider of a group of Greeks can feel from time to time, you still wish you could go to their functions, because, let's face it, Greeks do cool things.
They have masseuses come to the house before finals, they go to the mountains every fall and the beach every spring, they have parties with 80s themes and ones where the girls and the guys split a guy's suit for their attire, they have cool philanthropy events, and they get to meet a lot of people pretty easily.
It doesn't matter if you hate the idea of Greek life, you can't not be jealous from time to time about their parties and functions.
You realize Greeks really do run the school.
They have some of the best tailgating spots--and by best I mean the biggest, most ratchet spots you go to for free booze and a good laugh. They rent out bars for their parties, and when they do, you can't get in if you're not with them. And Greek support of other on campus organizations is key to that org's success.
There are two main philanthropy organization's on USC's campus: Relay for Life and Dance Marathon. Both great organizations with fantastic missions. I've done Relay since I was a freshman, and year after year, although both orgs have grown, I've watched DM grow faster and make much larger sums of money for their cause than Relay, and a huge part of that is the amount of support DM has in the Greek world. Greek life runs DM.
There are times you will be so glad you didn't rush.
Like when your friend missed her mandatory chapter and has to pay a fine. Or when they have to go to chapter at all. Or when your roommates have to stop what they're doing every night to go to the house to eat or get food to bring home because they have to have a meal plan, and when you know that it's going to take them fifteen minutes to just get there even though Greek Village is five minutes tops from our house, because the traffic is so bad that time of day.
Or when you hear about all the drama-- and I don't just mean sorority drama. Fraternities have their fair share.
Or when you listen to the girls at the table next to you in the library fretting over who they should ask to their function because they don't have a date yet. Those functions sound fun and all...but trying to find a date? No thank you.
And when you look up how much it can cost.
Frat guys are extra annoying.
There are the dudes, and I'm sure some girls, who will put down anyone who isn't Greek. I've seen it happen.
It's annoying and rude, and it really makes me want to punch them every time I hear them chuckling amongst themselves about how funny and cool they think they are for being judgmental idiots. Mostly though, it's funny because everyone around them hates them for being so stupid, and we're all shaking our heads at them for thinking they're so awesome.
These are the frat guys with the Bieber hair, the Vineyard Vines button downs, short shorts, Croakies, Sperries, and swag that immediately lets you know they think they're better than you, so therefore they deserve more than you. You should get out of their way in the bars, and if you don't they'll bump into you, hard. They'll smirk at you for being different than them and "whisper" to their friends about it so you can hear them. They'll try to start a fight, only because they know it'll be six on one, and you'll lose.
These are the guys my friends who didn't go to a school with a large Greek population hate and love to make fun of, and honestly, I agree with them. Because I do go to school with a predominate Greek population, I get it, and I think because I get it, it makes me hate them more.
Sometimes it's really fun to be the only GDI around.
You feel kind of cool sometimes when you go to a Greek party or tailgate and everyone knows you anyway but not because of what sorority you're in.
It's nice to not be known for your letters: "Who's that girl, do we know her?" "Ah, she's a Chi O I think."
As cliche sounds, I like being known as my best friend's friend (which is 9 times out of 10 the reason I'm around any Greek events anyway) when people ask who I am, and being remembered as just me, rather than being remembered for the entire group of girls I associate with. I don't get pegged with the stereotype about a sorority or judged based on it upon first impression, and for whatever reason, sometimes it really does fascinate people that I'm at whatever party or tailgate I'm at and don't have letters.
You'll be jealous of the crafts and presents and t-shirts.
My roommates spent days making crafts and buying presents for their littles... I painted my own canvases to decorate my walls. Those were the times I wished I had a big who'd done it for me and the ones I wished I could have a little to paint for too.
And the t-shirts? Whoever designs Greek t-shirts does a really great job, and usually I'm really jealous I don't have an organization that creates cool new t-shirts for me to potentially buy like once a month. It would really help my t-shirt collection. Because as nice as the free t-shirts you get on campus from people advertising student housing or student orgs are, they just aren't as cool.
No matter how hard you try, there will always be an air that you don't belong.
Not to diss the hospitality of any of the Greek friends I have, especially the ones who have welcomed me at their parties and houses and tailgates, and maybe it's just me. But no matter how much or how long I hang around people in Greek life, it's just a fact that my fourteen year old cousin summed up so well for me: They're just not my kind of people.
There's a reason I didn't rush. I find Greek life to be cliquey and frivolous and slightly annoying. I think the priorities of some Greek people are all out of whack, I hate the entitlement letters seem to give some people, and I don't like to be told what I can and can't do because I belong to such and such sorority and they have "standards."
I was friends with my best friend and my roommates before they all went Greek, and I'm friends with the people I've met through all of them because I like them as people, not because they are in whatever sorority or fraternity they're in. I go to their parties and tailgates not because of letters associated with them, but to hang out with my friends and have a good time, which is something I can't say for everyone.
But in a crowd full of people who all know the rules and workings of Greek life, there will always be a disconnect for me. It took several failed attempts to try to fit in with them for me to accept this for what it is and be ok with realizing I will never fully understand Greek life. Because at the end of the day, I just don't fit in with them, and I know some of them think the same of me.
