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Originally Posted by FunGirl123

Thank you for all the responses.

I still do not think some of you understand what I am trying to say.

What made me join the whole sorority life was because I wanted to get the most out of my university experience, especially since I live off campus.

It is not the dressing up part that I am pissed off at the moment.

"Two heads are better than one" <-- That's also one of the reasons why I joined. Joining an organizing where you have the opportunity to succeed and make a positive impact (both individually and as a group).

So therefore, I do believe we should help each other be the best they can be, but at the same time, we need to know when to step aside and let the person make the choice. I guess, at the end of the day, I do not want to feel as if im not an indepent person, and I couldn't do anything without this organization. I dont want to feel depended on my sorority. It is VERY important for me to figure things out on my own and not have a bunch of sorority girls telling me what to do. I want to make my own mistakes and handle the consequences myself.

I am completely aware of the 'real world' and realize that I will be part of a workforce where I have to portray an image. I do not mind having these types of expectations from my job, but I guess I am having trouble having these expectations from my sorority. Plus, I do not want to be some lawyer working in some big firm where i will be constantly watched. I am planning to be a dietitian where expectations of me from clients, but more so on my knowledge about nutrition, as opposed to what I did last night, what I am wearing ect.(note, image will be important, but if i want to be hired by a hospital, their main issue will be how well do I know nutrition and how well can I assess dietary meal plans for my patients).

I still feel like we need to be constantly selling ourselves. And I guess, right now, I feel like is this really worth my time? Do not get me wrong. I love my sorority girls. and I have had this talk with some of them, and they agree. We do not like being judged for every little thing we do. This is fine to us in the corporate world, but not in sorority world, where you expect the girls to be your sisters.

(random: another thing that just happened recently: one of our girls was told by international ppl to put off pictures of certain girls off our website because they did not fit the right image -aka are ugly. When I joined my sorority, I was so happy to join such an organization that did not fit the stereotypes-superficial and all about showing off what a great sorority they are. This is like high school all over again and I am sick of it.

Here's the deal.

Like many here have said, sororities have expectations. I personally do believe that in college things like drinking, under age drinking, experimentation, sex, etc., things that maybe as an organization we don't encourage but as individuals participate in, aren't that big of a deal MOST OF THE TIME. I think that common mistakes we make as college students/human beings are reasonable to expect. And by that rule, I've never had a friend be dropped or disciplined by a sorority for doing things like drinking with friends, discreetly having sex, etc. It's when someone can't control themselves while drinking, flaunts underage drinking and gets caught, or becomes embarrassingly promiscuous that people start to get annoyed. Basically, taking anything to extremes.

It isn't healthy to be totally dependent on anything once you are college-age, in my own opinion, from your family to your sorority. If you have friends in other sororities or that are not in one at all, if you participate on other organizations on campus, if you make friends with others in your major, you won't be. It doesn't take much effort to branch out. A sorority expecting you to essentially behave yourself doesn't equate to dependence. Again, unless your chapter is different from most other chapters and organizations across the nation, the expectations are basically that you try to be a good person, that you aren't a hedonistic brat, etc. Everyone messes up, and being humble enough to identify a mistake as a mistake, apologize, learn from it, and move on can go a long way even for someone who DOES get "in trouble". I confidently bet that you ARE NOT being judged constantly. By nature people are selfish, especially people our age and younger. They spend MUCH more time thinking about themselves then about you, I promise. You'll have to really mess up to grab their attention.

Everyone feels differently, but I've said before that if I hadn't been in a sorority I think I would have gotten into trouble that I am very, very, very glad I avoided. I did do the same things other college students do, but I didn't flaunt any rule breaking, and when I was spoken to I apologized and made an effort not to do whatever was so offensive again. If you stop worrying so much about what everyone else is thinking and saying...because, again, most of the time it's really not about you...you'll do what you want, have fun, and find that once you've made friends outside the sorority you will have stopped thinking so much about it. You'll also find that you've made it through your first year just fine.

It does not matter what job you have YOU WILL BE JUDGED IN SUPERFICIAL WAYS. This is THE REAL WORLD. As much as you say you understand it, you sound like you don't. This is reality, ugly or not. Your clothing choices will be judged, your behavior will be judged, what you put on the internet will be judged, etc.

Greek organizations are social organizations, but they are also to prepare you for real life. Most people probably join to have fun, but should you continue to look only for fun, you won't get much out of the experience to be honest. They prepare you for the real world, and the real world IS superficial. High school will never, ever end. Judging, gossiping, cattiness, backstabbing, and all the rest will continue for the rest of your life in your job, clubs, groups of friends, church/temple...everywhere. Something a sorority helps you do is accept that. It also helps you learn to deal with people in authority that you don't like or that you don't agree with. And the great thing about it is that you get to learn this sort of stuff in a safer environment in the real world, where something as important as your job could be at stake.

In my family sometimes mean things get said, fights happen, snide comments get made...all kinds of crappy stuff. At the end of the day we make up because we're family. It's the same thing in a sorority except that you MUST remember that you weren't born with these people. You make a promise to support each other and everyone should uphold that but you can treat someone with respect without every being friends or even really liking them. You aren't going to like every sister and not every sister will like you. That's ok. That's normal.

It sounds like you want a group of friends. If all you're looking for is close relationships and some fun, a sorority probably isn't the best choice for you. You can get that from close friends, other clubs, or teams. And you can probably learn some of the aforementioned lessons in those settings as well. A sorority is just a more organized way of doing it and has other obvious advantages, but the bottom line is that if you aren't ready to deal with these issues yet, which is fine, then you probably need to start looking for another group or team to fit into on campus and try to part ways in a friendly manner. Some people WILL be mad at you. You made a promise and if you leave you are breaking it, and not, honestly, for a reason that a lot of us think is good enough. But if you're ready to accept those consequences and if you think the close friends you do have in the chapter will accept your decision then I would suggest you start the process. It would be better if you found an older sister that you think is similar in personality to yourself so that she can describe her experience in your particular chapter, but I get the impression your mind is already made up.

Lastly I just don't believe the end of your post. I don't. There could be many reasons to take pictures down from a website: the clothing might not meet standards international feels are appropriate, there might have been something in the picture or in the background of the picture like a Solo cup that made them uncomfortable, someone could have lied to you about the reason the pictures were removed (or who told them to do it if they wanted to take the heat off themselves)...but I do not believe any national or international did that. I've seen almost all of their sites and they contain a variety of women of every color, shape, and size.