Fall 04
Summer has come and gone. I'm a junior, i come back to school as an RA and i'm a mentor at a middle school. I work at another middle school as a tutor... i just come back from a summer of interning at an investment bank - life is great! I can tell this is going to be a great year.
Sophomore year finished up for me quite depressing. I hadn't told many people about the not getting a bid a 2nd time (only my mom and
Chris, at that point (and still) ex-BF but still great friends, seriously!) and it was eating at me the rest of the year. My mom was supportive and always said it was meant to be, that i would just have to play my cards right and be patient. Chris would hear none of it - he'd never been in support of greek life, and more especially because i hadn't been pursuing Black greek life...
Until now. Spring 2004 and all of the summer left me lots of time to do my research. As many of you GCers know from the nature of NPHC posters, becoming a member is pretty different. I know, quite an understatement. Someone asked why didn't i just join in Spring 2004. Well, a few reasons:
1. I was still "young." (that's personal i guess)
2. I didn't know much about greek life, and no one i knew was NPHC (but this would change)
3. Even if i did know which org i wanted, I live in NYC - not exactly Greek Country. Pursuing a chapter, much less events and members, proved to be very similar to landing a job... or finding a boyfriend! LOL definintely a needle in the haystack.
4. Community service - clearly a big component of NPHC life, i hadn't done much of it. Not that i would do more or less of it in light of wanting to be greek, but i hadn't done anything "formal" or continuous - a project here and there.
In other words, i needed to get on my grind if i wanted to be a member of greek life before i graduated (this is my thinking
then).
So you know I eventually become a Sigma Gamma Rho, but I'm going to code the other three orgs just because. And all things awesomeness comes in 3's
I name the orgs the following:
Morning
Afternoon
Night
So the essential question is:: What kind of person am I - an early bird, a high tea-loving lady or a night owl?
In real life, I'm totally a nite owl. Let's talk about
Night first. When I was gathering all i wanted/needed to know about NPHC life, I said, "Oh man, i'm totally a Night person!" and coincidentially all these connections popped up. My aunt (unbeknowst to me) and 2 of my favorite teachers from HS are all Night owls. One of Night's colors isone of my favorite colors. My mentor's best friend is a Night owl.
The thing about nighttime is that it's dark... while i seemingly had these connections with various night members, you can't really see in the dark. And since i don't have X-ray vision
well, i wasn't getting anywhere with Night. The local chapter was at a school kinda far and their events were sparse and not well advertised. For the most part I made it my business to make an appearance at their events and get to know their members, I kept stubbing my toe on the nightstand.
Well one wil only stand for injuring themselves for so long right? I knew i had to get out of harm's way, but something kept pulling me back to them.
I enjoy the
Afternoon too - lunchtime, gossip, that whole hour to yourself! I didn't know any Afternoon ladies (well, I discovered that my old gym teacher was an Afternoon - proud of it too, as her daughter was one at Howard and always wore an Afternoon-lettered sweatshirt or cap) but I wanted to! Their website was nice and the most direct i felt in getting what i needed to know. Mind you, at this point everything i know about NPHC is on the internet - websites, message boards (i had just joined GC, and lurked on some other boards), hell I was an avid ATSB reader and even though NOW i can laugh at it, in 2004-2005, ATSB was the TRUTH!). The Afternoon ladies had a decent reputation but it wasn't one i wanted to be known as. At one event I met an afternoon lady and well, she was less than cordial. Impecciably dressed, but utterly unprepared for the event and left out of frustration. I, along with many interested members were so confused - what went wrong?!
I think that year one girl my year had crossed in the Afternoon but I was so scared to even ask her about being an Afternoon! There was a chapter at Columbia, but i was too chicken to go there if they had any events going on.
I absolutely dread the morning - please don't bother me before 11am! the only thing i enjoy about the morning is breakfast food, and i'll eat that anytime! In checking out the
Morning, I wasn't all that impressed with them - something about the colors rubbed me the wrong way (i know - shallow right!). I didn't know anyone, currently or in my past who was a Morning person, but I did meet one in a Duane Reade near campus. It was so awkward, i remember cause i tried to strike up conversation with her. it was an early Sunday morning, i had run out for some stuff and apparently she had a day of studying ahead of her - she had a bulging backpack AND books in her hand. She mustve smelled the interest on me but she did hook me up with information to an event that was coming up... and she said, "Oh i'm sure all of Pan-hell will be there, so you should check it out!" The event was in a couple of weeks and you know I was hype!
NICE! Someone was willing to hook me up! Maybe I could grow to enjoy the AM hours? I didn't know much about the morning - I tended to sleep through it if i could get away with it.
I used to joke to my residents that my office hours were from 12-6am - that's how much of a night person I am. If i'm sleeping before midnight, i either have somewhere to be the next day (ie. an interview) or i'm sick. Similarily, despite all my setbacks, I wasn't trying to miss out on a chance to stay up late with Night.
Ok it's time to go to home, but set your alarms GCers - the next post i'll give you the scoop on how that event went!
) who has been posting here for years. She's also my homegirl.
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