By Ellen Buchanan
After sorority recruitment, I dove into my chapter head first. I’m from the South, where Greek life is beyond huge, so I was ready to have a hundred or so best friends like all the girls from my hometown did after their recruitment. I did everything I could to get involved. I made so many new friends at different events and threw myself into any and everything Greek. I was so excited to be a part of a group that I started to lose myself in it. It wasn’t as if I became a clone of each and every one of my sorority sisters; one of the great things about BU is that Greek life doesn’t have to be an all-consuming aspect of a person’s schedule. Even still, I found a new group of friends and essentially dropped my old ones.
As we went home for summer vacation I kept in touch with many of my sorority sisters and very few of my “first semester friends”. After returning for my sophomore year, I was already sick of being defined by my sorority. I was frustrated with the brands put on each chapter, and on Greek life as a whole. I began to struggle to find myself as an individual within my chapter.
I wouldn’t claim that this is a good or a bad thing. Maybe I’m just starved for attention and the need to stand out. Either way, I found myself branching out to more groups even at the end of my previous semester. I applied to be a FYSOP leader and found a whole network of mentors and friends through both staff and the first years. I pushed myself to branch out in class and make connections with every person I met.
Rather than letting Greek life become a bubble, I have tried to use it as a web, letting it connect me with people and experiences all across campus. I have also grown to understand that my sorority friends are allowed to be my best friends, but branching out is always important as well.
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To anyone planning to involve themselves with a compact social group: don’t let it define you, rather use it as a tool to grow as a person.
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