This semester I did something I never thought I would do: I joined a sorority. Me. I am the girl who watched "Sorority Life" on MTV with equal feelings of anger and sadness over how they treated their new sisters. I am the girl that bought "Pledged" the week it came out because I wanted to know more about what these terrible organizations were doing to young women. Me! The girl who would rather spend a Sunday watching football with her husband and her father than pretty much anything else in the world. Yeah. Me.
Something shifted in me, though. Maybe it was the show GrΣΣk's depiction of female friendships that got me, or maybe I was just lonely. I don't really know. When I heard about the new sorority that was coming to BSU I researched them like a good Virgo and found out that they are known for REAL sisterhood, and for embracing down-to-Earth, individual women and created strong groups that look out for each other and people in the world that need their help. So I contacted them, and we did some things, and now I am a member. To be honest, I am having time of my life.
I have been doing a lot of thinking about my expectations going into this and I have realized that all of my ideas about what it means to be "in a sorority" come from the media. Since I have never known anyone that was involved in Greek life, I allowed television, newspapers, movies, books and magazines to make judgements for me. I was prejudiced against something I knew nothing about. Granted, I'm still learning, but I feel like this experience has shown me that you can't simply accept the things the media tells you about a subject, no matter how unremarkable it may seem. It is a good lesson to learn.
Now I feel ignorant.. I thought you had to live with a sorority? TELL ME MORE! :)
ReplyDeleteYou bring up such a good point! It's unfortunate that the media only really presents us with the stereotypical "sorority" that we see in movies and TV shows- cliques, condescending girls, peer pressure, etc. In reality, and at BSU, I don't see anything like that, I see a lot of the great things being done by sororities around campus. I am glad you have left your comfort zone, that's when we learn the most! Have fun!
ReplyDeleteAmander- I always thought that, too! It turns out that is only a requirement if they have a house, and every sorority handles it differently. Some schools actually do not allow sororities/fraternities to have houses on campus because of fears of hazing.
ReplyDeleteLaurel- It really is crazy. I shocked myself when I realized how ignorant I was to the whole thing. Now I am going to be the Panhellenic rep! Crazy :O)