Originally Posted by SISTERGREEK
^^You know, I wish I did. Writing this has made me remember things that I haven't thought about in a long time. I wonder what those guys look like now?
The summer before my senior year, I begin to systematically research the organizations: all of them, even the ones that I did not have a particularly favorable impression of. I knew I still had an opportunity to pledge because for some reason, at that point, organizations were taking lines every year, rather than every two years. What I learned about all of them was that they were so much more than the other college organizations that I was involved with. They were about “LIFETIME COMMITMENT” and “SERVICE.” Somehow, in all of my observation of these organizations on my campus, these two facts--particularly the service element--were lost on me. (Which means that all of our organizations could stand to do a better job of promoting our service dimension at the college level. I tell you, four years at an HBCU and I really did not see that aspect of these organizations being displayed on campus. In fact, what I did see was that people who were doing service in order to join these organizations quickly disappeared from the service projects after crossing. However, I don’t know if that was because they were now focusing on their organizations particular service endeavors or not. We have to do better with this. ) All of these organizations were doing positive things in the community and impacting the community in distinctive ways.
As I continued to research, Thundercats and Boy Meets World fell by the wayside. Nothing about these organizations, from their respective foundings to their then current initiatives, resonated particularly strongly with me. Though I had a good impression of BMW from campus, I was not moved to seek membership in this organization, though I now understood why my friend had. The history and programming of Thundercats, while also significant, did not really inspire me; it really reaffirmed my campus impressions that this was not the organization for me.
So that left X-Men and Punky Brewster. Both had very different things going for them. I had such strong, positive impressions of the X-Men on my campus and of course Punky Brewster had something very unique about its founding that was not easily dismissed. However, the founding and the vision of the X-Men seemed to me quite auspicious, and the programming was admirable and in line with my own philosophies about service and the women that were members of this organization were ones that I considered role models and whom I would want to one day call sorors (This is funny because when I initially became aware of greek life, this is the last organization that I thought I would identify so strongly with, and if you have read these posts closely, you will understand why). Ultimately, the unique elements of the founding of Punky Brewster was not enough to outshine the legacy of X-Men and the representation of the organization that I saw on my campus.
But still, I wasn’t quite decided. I knew that if I was to pledge, I wanted only X-Men. It was X-Men or nothing at all. However, I was not sure whether I really truly wanted to pledge(I tend to overthink things; I am trying to be better about that). Of course, by the time I made up my mind, the process for that year’s line had already begun; so the undergrad ship had sailed for me and I had to turn my mind to pursuing graduate membership.
Dunh, Dunh, Dunnnnnnnh......Will SISTERGREEK achieve her goal of membership in X-Men? (Well, obviously, I do.) Who are the mysterious X-Men? Who is the mysterious SISTERGREEK? (She only has a few posts, and yet she seems so well acquainted with this board.) Tune in for the cliffhanging ending of "I Don't Need No Stinking Sorority." Coming soon....
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