should i rush/pledge SAE again?
 

During the spring semester of my freshmen year me and a bunch of my friends pledged Sigma Alpha Epsilon. About four weeks into the pledging process my sister was diagnosed with epilepsy and my father found out he had skin cancer. Obviously this was a very stressful time for me and I had to de-pledge in order to go home on the weekends to be with my family. I didn't pledge my Sophomore year because I was working all the time and missed the rush dates. My question is this... I am now going into the fall semester of my junior year and the desire to be a part of this fraternity is still very strong. Should I rush again in the fall? I still keep in touch and am friends with the majority of brothers in the fraternity, I'm just nervous that its too late in my college career. I should also mention that greek life is not that big at my school and numbers for a fall rush would be minimum.
Any help or advice you could give would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Adam

As a man who didn't join SAE until I transferred to UW with a year and a half of school left, I'd say go for it. I had so many great experiences in that year and a half. It was honestly the best time of my college career. Best of luck.

I have to agree with WyoAlph.

I didn't pledge until spring of my sophomore year and have always wished I'd done it sooner. Once you've joined, you're a member for life, not just for your last year or two as an undergrad.

Anyway it's not like you de-pledged because you just didn't feel like putting in the time or the work; you clearly had a good reason. To find fault with someone for having to deal with family emergencies like those you were handed would be entirely inconsistent with what it means to be an SAE.

My advice would be to keep in touch with the brothers in the chapter, show up to the events during rush, and make sure your interests are known. If they see that you're sincere (and they accepted you previously), I can't see why it wouldn't work.

Our chapter here has had a couple people go through similar situations, and each one of them are now brothers. Gor for it and enjoy it.

That would be my only concern, as well.

Unfortunately, I missed all of the rush activites on my own campus this time around because I was still unsure of what I wanted to do.

Being that I missed the rush activities, I suppose there's a silver lining to every cloud in that I now have more time to read up on and research more into the philanthropy.

My only hesitation would be the fact that I'm basically needing to work nearly every weekend to make ends meat - you know how college life is. Do you think this would weigh heavily on the rush activities should I go ahead and rush SAE?

Rush activities are supposed to be events the chapter hosts to get to know the prospective members. The chapter should be paying for the events, not the rushees. You shouldn't have any problems here.

That having been said, there are certain unavoidable expenses associated with pledging (required fees, etc.), not to mention as an initiate, but there are also opportunities to deal with those as well, such as fundraisers (which also help build team unity). Any chapter that puts the bottom line ahead of a dedicated member, rather than finding a way to work something out, isn't a chapter I'd want to waste my time dealing with anyway.

Sweet, thanks for your help. It's greatly appreciated.

Oh, there would be no doubt of my dedication, should I put forth the effort. I like to see things through if I'm going to put my name, time, and efforts into something. I have this innate fear of things not getting done, so I make sure that they're done almost to the point of neuroticsm.

My only gripe would be if there was a planned activity or something, and I had to work. Both take presedence, yet.. I can't be in two places at once. Any suggestions on how possibly balance both?

Everyone has to find a balance between work, school, and fraternity. You just do the best you can with the time you have available.