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[QUOTE=SWTXBelle;1434276]
Argue with me if you want . . .
]QUOTE]
Wow. I will. You say "gross generalization" in your post. You just made the grossest generalization of my initial argument and twisted it in a way where I am sitting here offended.
How dare you decide that because I wanted to have "drinking buddies" that that is all that my brotherhood means to me and that is all my fraternity experience has to offer. (And yes, you said that...). Nowhere in my original message did I say that. Nowhere. Please point out where I said that.
My initial point is that I wanted brotherhood but also there are certain aspects of a fraternity that I know I personally wanted as well. If you are coming in and you love sports you'd want to make sure the house you were joining liked playing it. If you are coming in and you work very hard on your grades you will be looking for the house with one of the highest GPAs. Many freshmen come in looking for a group of guys they can party with and meet girls.
I was one of them, for sure. But I looked at each house to some degree on my campus (and there are over 20) and looked at the guys. I didn't rush several of the houses with "big parties, hot girl" reputations because I would not have fit in there. But I did want to make sure that I could have my ideal fraternity experience at the house I chose.
My fraternity has an incredibly strong brotherhood. That's very easy to say, especially online, but I stand 100% behind it. Seniors hang out with freshmen, we have almost 100% attendance at all of our events (including not just "party events" but chapter, ritual, community service, leadership fairs, you name it) not because we have to but because we love hanging out with each other and take pride in our house. Our ritual was practiced thoroughly and presented without a hitch and I know for a fact that it is important to all of us (so much so that the position of Ritual Director was the most applied to position out of all our Executive Board). We raise thousands for our philanthropy every year and as a chapter complete an average of 300 or so community service hours every semester. If you are talking about "not putting in work" (as a previous poster alluded to) we had to create more positions this year to fill the demand for leadership from our brothers. We have been honored by our national chapter on many occasions, have won awards from our university for our programming, have a strict membership selection process that looks at leadership and personality and does not even begin to consider looks/wealth/race/etc, have leadership positions all over campus, etc.
And yes, we drink. So I guess that because we drink all of our brotherhood and achievements don't mean anything compared to those of other chapters who don't party as much. I guess that the overwhelming sense of pride and love I feel for my fraternity (on a local and national level) and my dedication to my brothers is actually just because I like drinking. I'm very glad that, since you know me personally, you can make generalizations about my fraternity experience. I learned a lot about myself and my chapter today.
In conclusion, I shouldn't have even posted. As I said, I am a longtime lurker and have seen a general "houses who drink or are the largest on campus, etc can't touch the smaller houses in brother/sister-hood and dedication." This is disgustingly untrue. There is strong brotherhood present in some of the biggest and the smallest chapters on my campus, as well as horrendously bad brotherhood present in yes, the biggest AND smallest chapters on campus. It doesn't always work that way.
Just because members like to party or play sports or meet girls has NO bearing on their overall character, their dedication to their organization, their love for their brothers/sisters and their pride in their GLO. Saying "All ABCs are meat-head drunks who forgot ritual the next day and don't care about their brothers" is as ridiculous and laughable as saying "All XYZs are fat and ugly and slutty".
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