We like to imagine progress as an upward slope, with maybe a few small dips here and there, but reality tends to be much messier. It seems more like a doctor’s signature or the path of a drunk person trying to walk than an upward slope. And in this confusing, complicated path, staying committed is easier said than done. When it seems that no matter how hard you work or how much you try, you’ve ended up right where you started, it’s easier to forget why you started in the first place.
I passionately believe in Greek Life. I believe in the opportunities it creates to do better as well as the incentive to be better. While superficial divides separate Greeks from non-Greeks in some circumstances, I firmly believe that as a rule, fraternities and sororities spread more positivity on college campuses than anything else. When people ask me why I didn’t go abroad, I usually give some bull shit excuse about money, but the truth is that I knew if I went abroad, my dreams of a sorority at Lasell College would never become a reality. And now I’m forced to wonder if my many sacrifices were in vain. What was the point of working so hard, of spending so much of my hard earned money on the sorority, of staying in Massachusetts while my friends frolicked across Europe, of being mocked by classmates and targeted by my administration, if only to be chronically underwhelmed and disappointed by the people I’ve worked so hard for.
People want the fun. They want to “throw what they know.” They want semi, formal, mixers with fraternities, the letters in their social media bios, the cute shirts, the bigs and the littles. But they don’t want to be patient. They don’t want to build. They don’t want to work. When they realize that an ongoing effort of 2 years won’t immediately be able to compare to a century old organization at a giant southern school, suddenly it’s not worth the trouble.
And if I’m being honest with myself, I know that I’m partially to blame. I am by no means a perfect or exemplary president. I’ve been discouraged time and time again by people that I genuinely believed would be the turning point of Delta Delta Theta, and because of that I don’t have the same fire or optimism that I did when I was a rising sophomore.
But I’m not here to make excuses for my shortcomings. It’s my job to be the change I want to see, and I can’t do that half-heartedly. I need to remind myself and every one else that as easy as it is easy to say that Rome wasn’t built in a day, it’s a lot harder to admit to yourself that it wasn’t built in a year or five either. Delta Delta Theta has the potential to be something magnificent, but it won’t be without the faith and dedication of all parties involved. If I fail to inspire you or competently lead the sorority, hold me accountable. If you find yourselves ready to turn your back on the organization because you don’t have the fortitude to watch it become what you thought it would be, hold yourselves accountable.
what do you think?