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And now the rest of the story……
About 3 weeks go by and one afternoon I get a call from Determined. She has something to “tell” me. OH NO!! I’ve heard this before. Sure enough, she announces that she’s decided not to pledge XYZ. Once again I am stunned and speechless. Why won’t these daughters of mine just kill me quickly instead of little by little? So, I manage to croak out “Tell me WHY??” It turns out that in her experience, the sisters of XYZ were not as delightful as she had supposed. First, one sister told her that it while it wasn’t a “rule”, that NONE of their members would EVER date a guy in a certain fraternity. One of Determined’s guy friends from home had just pledged that house, so she was puzzled by the comment. When she asked why… Well, I’ll let you come to your own conclusions since ladies don’t say ANY of the words that would follow. Second, she was being really pushed to do EVERYTHING with either sisters or fellow pledges. By this time she was getting to know and love the girls on her hall and didn’t appreciate being “told” who she could hang with. And the last straw came when she was walking across campus with a close HS girlfriend who was pledging another sorority. The friend was wearing a shirt with her Greek letters. After they parted, a fellow XYZ pledge come up to Determined and said “I’m sure glad I didn’t have to settle for that house. What a bunch of LOSERS.” Determined said that she knew then and there that she had made the wrong choice and went to find the pledge mom to drop. What could I say? On one hand MY dreams of participating in Greek life (albeit vicariously) were at an end. On the other hand, how could I not support Determined in the difficult decision she made? Yes, you and I know that these were just random comments and didn’t reflect the opinions or attitudes of all the XYZs. Determined herself came to this same conclusion later her freshman year and remains friends with some girls in XYZ. But, she doesn’t regret her decision and still maintains it was the right one for her.
Determined will begin her sophomore year at the “University of Red Brick Sidewalks and Towering Oaks” next week. She’s living in the same dorm, on the same hall, with the same roommate. She has joined various campus groups and is studying Biology. She is planning to go to Med school in 3 years. You know what, I believe that she will! Just like her sisters Opinionated and Unpredictable, she has met lifelong sisters some of whom wear tees with Greek letters on them.
A final note……
Even though, none of my daughters ended up going Greek, I still believe and will ALWAYS believe that GLOs are a great way to give service to your school, community and of course to meet lifelong sisters. I think my best friend likes me to tell my tale to PNMs Moms so they will know that while being Greek at a large public University may give your daughter a place and a purpose, these things can also be found outside the Greek system. I like to tell the tale to remind myself that my dreams for my daughters are just that… mine. It’s their dreams for themselves that REALLY matter!
Since Opinionated, Unpredictable and Determined all knew that I wanted some Greek letter tees in the family, they decided to make that dream come true last Christmas. My 3 CRAZY daughters had tees made with the Greek letters of our “family” sorority. They proclaimed that we were the sisters of IHPi or in other words “I Eta Pi”. I suspect they only made me President so I would take charge of baking the pies.
I hope that all PMNs find their Greek homes during Rush this year and that ALL daughters know how much we (their Moms) love and support them.... no matter what!!
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