This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Illinois chapter.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my house, I love my friends, and I love being a part of the Greek system, but there are just some things about Greek life that make “Geed” (as in GDI, gosh darn independent or non-affiliated) life sound pretty appealing.
Actual School Spirit
I’m going to be honest, I miss going to sporting events. You may say, “Shannon, you can still do that. What’s stopping you from going?” And I’d reply that I would, except that most likely I would be flying solo if I decided to go to a game.
Football season at Illinois isn’t even about sports in the Greek system, it’s about block. For those of you unfamiliar with the term: It’s when a sorority pairs up with a fraternity, they get up super early, dig out their orange T-shirts from the bottom of their drawers, meet at a bar and drink an insane amount in the name of school spirit. And it’s fun, oh it’s fun. It’s day drinking at its finest. But if you took a poll to see what the final score was at the end of the game, at least half of the people wouldn’t know and of those people a good portion of them would just reply “*hiccup* I’m really *hiccup* not that drunk I swear.”
By all means, get your drink on my friend, but I think it would be fun to rock my orange and blue and be proud of my school and appreciate the sport itself. Realistically, after I graduate what house I’m in doesn’t matter anymore and all I’ll be saying is that I went to U of I. It would be awesome to feel like I’m part of the 40,000 person community I joined three years ago.
Not Worrying about the Social Hierarchy of the Greek System
Understanding that it’s not meant to be hurtful or rude, it still bothers me that the idea of “top houses” exists. And this is not a novel concept specific to Illinois; it’s a common theme among the Greek communities across the country. The idea of the “top house” is based on the premise that one group of people is better than the others, which simply isn’t true. And what factors are there to support this claim? Rumor has it that “King” and “Queen” houses used to be determined by how much money a house had raised for their philanthropy that year and the houses would change from year to year. It was very likely that you could be a King house one year, and then not the next.
From that, it has developed into a catty social hierarchy that doesn’t seem to be changing its ways anytime soon. I don’t know if I should say I’m fortunate or unfortunate to be considered in a “top house,” but I do know that it becomes an issue when I’m hesitant to answer the question “so what house are you in?” because, based on my audience, I know exactly what kind of response I’m going to get. To some, saying I’m in a top house means that I’m super cool and that I get to be part of some exclusive club that not everyone deserves to be in, but to others that means I’m immediately pegged as some uptight, snooty b***h that gets anything she wants with daddy’s money. Both of which are unfair assumptions. This point leads me to my third reason to be envious of the Geed life.
Avoiding the Sorority Girl Stereotype
As a sorority girl, society expects a few things from me. I always need to look good, I must always wear designer clothes, my friends and I are all clones of each other, and I’m really stupid. *scratches head* Umm, I think I’m doing this whole sorority thing wrong I guess. As one of the non-Lilly Pulitzer-owning, no-monogrammed necklace wearing, “okay fine, maybe I’ll strike the sorority pose for pictures sometimes” kind of girl, it sucks to be lumped into that societally stereotyped group of people. If you are one of those girls, keep it up girl, you look fabulous, but that’s really just not my style.
Even one of my teachers, upon being asked what his first impression of me was, responded something to the likes of “oh, just another one of your typical sorority girls.” Had I not had the utmost respect for him I would have taken offense to it, but belonging to a house gave him the impression that I was probably all of those things that I listed previously. Make fun of me for having “first world problems,” but stereotypes can be hurtful and unfair.
Despite my rant, being involved in the Greek system is a pretty great thing, but I could imagine that being a Geed would be pretty awesome too.