Hi! It's Recruitment Week!!

Recently I saw a post on social media publicly trashing Greek life at a certain college. Unfortunately this is far too common this day in age. While I don't know why this person felt the need to use Facebook to bash Greek life, I do know that so many times people completely miss the mark on what Greek life truly is.

I don't know how many times Greek life bloggers can explain the following point. Dues do not buy you friends. Dues and fees go towards sorority/fraternity events and paying the national office. Sororities and fraternities are in face businesses that have employees who need pay checks. We pay for their services and expertise. That's all I'm going to say about dues and fees. I am SO tired of hearing it. I do NOT pay anyone to be my friend and no one pays me to be theirs.

Moving on. The point of Greek life is not just to party, act like your better than others, or leave people out. As most of my readers know, I am a member of Alpha Sigma Tau. The first line of AST's mission is to foster intellectual, cultural, ethical, and social development of its members. We spend time volunteering, socializing, and learning in the ever changing world. For the most part every sorority aims for these things. Yes, we have our own values that WE hold in a high respect. Yes, we look for girls who share these values and live them in their daily life.

Of course, I speak for MY chapter of MY sorority, but from what I have observed, other sororities/chapters are about the same. Unfortunately, this is not always evident during recruitment.

The most frustrating thing about recruitment is that as active members, we have to determine if a potential new member holds our values in about an hour. That's extremely hard. Not getting a bid (or even a pref invitation) doesn't mean you were disliked in the rush room. It usually means that not many sisters had the opportunity to meet you. They didn't get to know about your 200+ volunteer hours from high school or your 3.99 GPA. But, they probably want to get to know you.

If being in a sorority is THAT important to you, I have some advice. If you didn't get a pref invite or a bid, DO NOT GIVE UP! If those letters and those women mean so much to you, fight for them! Don't bash Greek life, go to open recruitment, spend time with the sisters. It is literally that easy. Put yourself out there and step outside of your comfort zone. You can do it!!