My sorority is too small (and the chapters too far apart) for such chance encounters...however I have an interesting story about alum-connections that ended up in my sorority's expansion to my university. Bear with me, there's a lot of background here....
I was one of those kids who came to school thinking that the greek lifestyle was not for me. Unfortunately, I had heard mostly negative things about greeks, and most of those were stereotypes. I was *cautiously* receptive to the idea of going greek, as I had a met a few greek women who shared their positive experiences. Nevertheless, finances and a few other factors kept me from rushing my freshman year. And after seeing the absurdity
of formal rush at my school, I decided to wait a while, and go through informal rush.
I lost interest for a while, because I got discouraged...I liked what I had researched about every house (GLO
and BGLO)...and I liked all the ladies I met, at the houses that I was most curious about. But that "special something," was lacking. I didn't want to commit to anything if my heart wasn't fully in it.
Then something curious happend: I met all these guys, independantly of each other. I became friends with each of them, independantly of each other. I came to joke that they were my adoptive brothers (I was really missing my own kid brother, at this point). What I didn't realize, for a while, that they were all either initiated members or pledges of the same fraternity -- Triangle Fraternity.
I hung out with these guys a LOT. I came to know quite about them, esp. with respect to their individual committments to their chapter/brotherhood. I was impressed by them; they were literally rebuilding their chapter from the ground up. What impressed me the most was that they had chosen to commit themselves, in a brotherly fashion, to furthering the lives of young men in scientific and technical fields.
I realized that *this* kind of committment was the special something I had missed among the ladies I had met with...I was really interested in seeing a group of technically-minded women having fun and doing service together. I expressed my regret to these wonderful guys, that Triangle wasn't co-ed! I meant it as a joke...however one of their alum, who was present, didn't. He took me aside and mentioned that one of their chapters' up north used to have a little sister group, that formed its own sorority. He mentioned that I might want to look into them. He gave me the contact information for a brother at that chapter, who knew these women...the rest, as they say, is history. Within a couple of months, I was not only in touch with the ladies at the Alpha Chapter of Alpha Sigma Kappa - Women in Technical Studies, but there was an interest group at my school, that was close to fulfilling the requirements to becoming the Beta Colony!
As you can see, I still smile when I think of this...connections are cool!
[sheepish grin]...sorry for the length!
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