Greek life: an omnipresent force on many college campuses. For a good number of students, it presents an opportunity to forge lifelong friendships, gain connections, and feel a sense of acceptance and belonging. I have many friends who made the decision to go Greek, and I support them wholeheartedly. However, after considering my own personality traits, I eventually realized that Greek life wasn’t for me.
As an introvert, I toyed with the idea of joining a sorority for the purpose of “putting myself out there.” I considered that being in a sorority might help me make friends, as I’m not always the best at creating new relationships quickly. It was my introversion that ultimately persuaded me not to go through recruitment.
I realized that being a member of a sorority required more of a social commitment than I felt that I was ready for. Of course, I absolutely love and support my friends who chose to go through recruitment, but I just realized that the Greek social scene just isn’t my style. I knew that I already found it difficult to balance my academic, extracurricular, and social lives as a non-member. I felt that recruitment could potentially make this situation even more difficult for me. Just the idea of recruitment made my head spin, as I tend to see getting dressed up and socializing as more of a necessary evil than a pleasurable experience.
That being said, I also want to declare that there are plenty of good reasons to join a sorority as well. My friends who are involved all enjoy their organizations immensely, and those who are unaffiliated all seem to enjoy their social lives all the same. Going Greek really is an individual choice, and the only person who can decide whether or not it’s right for you, is you.