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.
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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