Reminscing on extracurriculars
May 2005 can’t come soon enough. A semester stands in the way of gradiating with the best edumacation that money can bye. Well, at least the best edumacation that student loans can buy, putting me into a five-figure debt.
For many, it hasn’t hit them yet that this is really it. It didn’t hit me until a couple of weeks ago. And when it hit me, it hit me like a sack of bricks. It hurt. August was my last time to be a Corral leader. February will be my last Mustang Marathon. This will be my last semester to ruminate about college. As I was crossing off items on my list of “Lasts” to do, I began to think, holy crap, what else is left? Not much at all, so I’d better enjoy it now. You don’t get to do this sort of stuff out in the real world.
One significant final event was recruitment. As much as I complained about having to come back from winter break early to practice twelve hours a day, door chanting and what not, I know I’ll miss it when I’m sitting behind a desk at some job I’ll probably end up hating.
Recruitment for sororities is so different from fraternities. But there are quite a few differences between fraternities and sororities all together. For instance, Big Sis/Lil Sis and Big Bro/Lil Bro is one major component of sororities and fraternities that differ greatly. The Big Sis/Lil Sis event lasts an entire week, whereupon the new Lil Sis is showered with gifts each day of the week. The grand finale is called Revelation where the Lils find out who their Bigs are. The Lil Sis gets tons of cute gifts with their letters branded all over them.
Big Bro/Lil Bro, on the other hand, is completely different. A Big Brother gets his Lil Brother 3 things: a shot glass, a t-shirt and a bottle of alcohol. If he’s willing to go the extra buck fifty, he’ll throw in a decal for his Lil Brother’s car. Any more than that and it’s like, “Whoa, Dude, whataya doin’?” Actually, a Big Brother only has to get his Lil Brother 2 things, because he ends up drinking the alcohol with his Lil Brother, so that no longer counts.
Rules for dating differ as well. It’s usually okay for a guy to date another brother’s ex. That is, if there wasn’t a huge emotional attachment to this girl. And given that this is college, emotional attachment on a guy’s part is a rarity, so anything goes.
I’m pretty certain it’s apart of an unspoken code that thou shalt not date a sister’s ex, emotional attachment or not. I think you’re actually supposed to stare down the ex and give him dirty looks every time you see him, for as long as your sister is still single. Now, when she starts to date someone better, then you can stop with the dirty looks. You still can’t date him, though.
The sorority house: always clean, smells good, and boys are never allowed upstairs. By the way, I hate to rain on a guy’s parade, but we don’t have pillow fights in our underwear in the sorority house. It’s a dream worth having, so keep dreaming.
The fraternity house: filthy, wreaks of age-old beer, and girls are always welcome, especially upstairs.
It’s okay for a girl to wear several items and articles of clothing printed with her letters, like a t-shirt, a jacket, a baseball cap, a button and flip-flops all at once. If a guy were to wear that many items with his letters on them, you’d think he was trying to endorse his fraternity, like an athlete endorses athletic apparel. I don’t think that would quite fly around here.
Brothers bail each other out of jail. Sisters keep each other from having to do the walk of shame.
Man, how I’m going to miss this. But how fortunate I am to have something that makes letting go so hard to do.
Lots of love to all the new members!
