III. The beginning of my journey.
I came to Umass during the Fall of 1999 and moved into one of the giant dorms. Umass was still considered a party school then. Every weekend on frat row looked like a Mardi Gras party with thousands of students packing the streets and pretty much closing down the street of frat row. It was an amazing experience. I have never seen such a huge party. People were on roofs, kegs on the front lawns, loud music, it literally looked like Bourbon St.
My step-brother was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha (different chapter way out west shortly before I began college), and I was a legacy. However joining a fraternity was the furthest thing from my mind. The only time I ever thought about anything fraternity related was those two or three minutes I was sober enough at them between my next beer (don't worry, I sobered up like all freshman do right before midterms
). My first beer at Umass actually was at Gamma Zeta, but at that point in time it was just some stupid fraternity to me and was just the first stop in a string of 9 other fraternities having parties.
The first few weeks were a blur to me. Freedom. No parents. Hot freshman girls everywhere you looked. Beer. Beer. Beer.
My roomates and floor neighbors were nice and we got along, we would go out drinking, have fun, etc., but something was really missing.
I still wanted beer and girls ( I would eventually find out there is so much more to life and fraternity), but I knew that the dorms were not for me. So one night I'm sitting in my dorm room and I notice a little 1/4 page flier advertising LCA rush. It was the first time in my life that I ever considered joining a fraternity. I never even considered joining any other frat at that moment.
Me and my brother are alot alike, same personalities, likes, dislikes, etc. When he talked about his time at LCA it was like he described this amazing place, but whenever I visited him there all it looked to me was a beer drenched house in the ghetto. How could anyone actually LIKE this???
But when I got that 1/4 flier, I really think it was divine intervention. I don't know why, but something pulled me from my dorm room that night, put my shoes on and marched me down Fearing St., all by myself, into something as scary as going to a fraternity for rush.
Next: My first encounter. Ok the basic story is now set, now comes the good stuff where we can actually talk about the fraternity.