Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

Ustwo · 11-13-2007, 12:33 PM

This thread has done something for me, by reopening a long neglected chapter in my life.

I was in a Fraternity. It was a national frat and I would hardly call its members rich. The frat dues for living in house were less than the dorms, and also provided meals (better than the dorms). Most of the members came from middle and lower middle class families, and we had a lot of small town guys in it as well. Thats not to say there were not frats with more rich kids or the like, but the system itself was quite diverse.

We had quite a bit of fun, I met my wife at a party we were having, and I still had the GPA to succeed in life after in my chosen field. I'd add that the fraternity and sorority GPA's were always higher than the non-greek student body.

But some things I forgot about. We also raised enough money while I was there to create a playground for handicapped children in the city, these had to be designed for various disablities and were expensive. Several of our members would volunteer summers to erect these across the country. We also did volunteer work with a sorority on city clean up projects, and let me tell ya, I'd not have been getting up at 7 on a Saturday morning when I was 19 if it weren't a group organized activity like that.

Looking more into it, I wasn't much of a ladies man in college. My 'record' was 4 non-sorority and 2 sorority girls. For such sluts, they didn't seem any more into it than those normal girls who didn't pay for their friends.

Interesting when I met my wife she had recently joined a sorority, the week before. She was at a party at my fraternity and we really started to hit it off from the first moment we were together (no not love at first site, more like lust) and we went up to my room to talk more where the music wasn't so loud (and yes just talk). So there we were, door shut, getting to know each other and *knock knock* hey (insertustwofuturewifename) are you ok in there? This happened two more times before we just left the door open so we would not have to keep opening the door. So here was this 18 year old girl, her first week in college, in a guys room (and I'd been drinking), a recipe for disaster were I not who I am, and here they were checking up on her to make sure she was ok even though they only knew her as a new pledge, nothing beyond that. Apparently that was their MO for parties like this, where a handful of older girls would make sure no one got into trouble.

So while its easy from the outside looking in to attempt to look down upon them, make up cutesy derogatory names, and talk about it being an anachronism as if somehow things are better without it, but for me it was a very valuable part of my growing up.

11-13-2007, 12:33 PM	#22 (permalink)
Ustwo Pissing in the cornflakes	This thread has done something for me, by reopening a long neglected chapter in my life. I was in a Fraternity. It was a national frat and I would hardly call its members rich. The frat dues for living in house were less than the dorms, and also provided meals (better than the dorms). Most of the members came from middle and lower middle class families, and we had a lot of small town guys in it as well. Thats not to say there were not frats with more rich kids or the like, but the system itself was quite diverse. We had quite a bit of fun, I met my wife at a party we were having, and I still had the GPA to succeed in life after in my chosen field. I'd add that the fraternity and sorority GPA's were always higher than the non-greek student body. But some things I forgot about. We also raised enough money while I was there to create a playground for handicapped children in the city, these had to be designed for various disablities and were expensive. Several of our members would volunteer summers to erect these across the country. We also did volunteer work with a sorority on city clean up projects, and let me tell ya, I'd not have been getting up at 7 on a Saturday morning when I was 19 if it weren't a group organized activity like that. Looking more into it, I wasn't much of a ladies man in college. My 'record' was 4 non-sorority and 2 sorority girls. For such sluts, they didn't seem any more into it than those normal girls who didn't pay for their friends. Interesting when I met my wife she had recently joined a sorority, the week before. She was at a party at my fraternity and we really started to hit it off from the first moment we were together (no not love at first site, more like lust) and we went up to my room to talk more where the music wasn't so loud (and yes just talk). So there we were, door shut, getting to know each other and knock knock hey (insertustwofuturewifename) are you ok in there? This happened two more times before we just left the door open so we would not have to keep opening the door. So here was this 18 year old girl, her first week in college, in a guys room (and I'd been drinking), a recipe for disaster were I not who I am, and here they were checking up on her to make sure she was ok even though they only knew her as a new pledge, nothing beyond that. Apparently that was their MO for parties like this, where a handful of older girls would make sure no one got into trouble. So while its easy from the outside looking in to attempt to look down upon them, make up cutesy derogatory names, and talk about it being an anachronism as if somehow things are better without it, but for me it was a very valuable part of my growing up. __________________ Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.