I have literally been busting my ass on Delta Delta Theta for a year and a half now, and sometimes I honestly forget why. I’ve put in ridiculous hours of work and made countless sacrifices only to be met with disappointment from some so called “sisters,” ridicule from my peers and hostility from my administration.
I go to a small liberal arts school in New England. As much as I’ve grown to appreciate it, I tried to transfer to the University of Alabama during my freshman year, and never really got over the fact that I wasn’t able to. I decided that if I couldn’t transfer into my dream college experience I had to create it where I was, and be the change I wanted to see.
I talked to some friends and friends of friends at the time, and had gotten a good 25 or 30 girls involved, which was a pretty decent number to start with. Everyone was so excited about the idea of a sorority on our campus, but when push came to shove, no one wanted to show up to meetings. No one wanted to help. No one wanted to do anything. No one wanted to make time. No one wanted to contribute.
The next time I was looking for new members, I opened it up to the entire campus, thinking that this would attract girls that were serious about Delta Delta Theta, as opposed to my friends that didn’t treat ΔΔΘ like a priority, or even a commitment.
As promising as it seemed initially, I was ultimately met with the same results. Last semester, I worked even harder for a recruitment process that would encourage better candidates and as promising as all of the new members seemed, I was ultimately just as disappointed.
I understand that people constantly overestimate their time and energy, as I so often do, but the most important lesson I learned in 2014 is that at the end of the day, people make time for who and what matter to them.
Apathy aside, I feel that one of the largest contributors to wishy-washiness among the girls was the attitude towards the sorority on campus. Some of the student body has a genuine misunderstanding of Greek Life and what it entails, which is inevitable on any campus, but a large portion just treated the idea of Greek Life at my school as a joke because apparently it’s cool to hate things for no reason.
So many people at my school are so quick to ridicule, to complain, to belittle. They’ll bitch and moan day in and day out about how much they hate the school, but won’t do a damn thing to improve it or their own lives. They won’t go to the administration about a policy they’d like to see put in place, they won’t start a petition to change something they don’t like, they won’t throw their own parties (since everyone else’s are just so far below their standards) and they won’t transfer. They’ll be content to be miserable as long as they can blame everyone but themselves.
The statistics don’t lie: Greek Life provides a unique opportunity for college students, enabling them to more smoothly transition into productive, rewarding, charitable adult lives. But as long as the Lasell community continues to be the butt of its own joke, this will be a self fulfilling prophecy. A school can only ever be as good as its students, and if those students choose to not only reject but mock efforts towards positive change, they can’t blame anyone but themselves when their school makes no progress.
When I want to throw in the towel and cut my losses I remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day. I remember that quitters never win and winners never quit. But most of all, I remember that there is more dignity in failing at something you believe in than succeeding at mediocrity.
The school said my sorority couldn’t happen. The British said America couldn’t happen.
“Shut the fuck up and let freedom ring.” – me and George Washington
what do you think?