Welcome to Gaia! ::

Kazz: Ehhh, true.

Oh yeah, you ever thought about making a G Gundam guild? XP

Ok. Sure. My terming may have been harsh but that is how I see it. I am like Crafty. I know a s**t loads of people in Sororities and Frats and it's the same thing. You have to have that money to spend in order to even be considered in? What the hell for? It goes to further emphasize the ridiculousness of the whole college experience.

[I am not bagging on college at all; I love my school to death and think college is the best] You pay for a degree that will allow you to start off better than others. If you can't afford to pay for college you don't get that degree and you have a harder time starting with the same pay as a just graduated senior with a BA. College is ideally for the rich to get richer.

With that said, Frats/Sororities are one in the same. Rich[well off people] throwing money for parties and 'hands to shake'. Meeting people is great, the parties are fun but I am sorry. Shoveling out 2,800 dollars in a matter of weeks just for your Frat/Sorority is a very frustrating concept to toss around.

It's like that whole label business. People fuss over Prada, L.V and all those maker brands.

As for being in a Frat/Sorority because you expect that pay off of meeting the right people... It's called mixers. They are cheaper and you end up meeting people the same way. AND being in Frats and Sororities does not gain you respect. Seriously. You are going to meet people, toss the Frat name around, get into a company [ie] and you will then spend a majority of your career kissing someone's a**. THAT does not deserve respect.

Just like you are protecting your ideology for Frats and Sororities, so am I in the 'outsider' retrospect. I don't see anyone from Frats and Sororities as being 'dumb, drunk, rich kids' or 'rich, prissy, sluts' but from what I've seen, what i've heard and what I've experienced it's not the peaches and cream you are making it out to seem.

And if something was really as great as you made it seem and had the most to offer, you would not be spending the amount of cash you are for it. You would not have to make an a** out of yourself in the beginning and you would not have to do things that you would later on regret in your life just to fit in with your 'brothers' and 'sisters'. If you never have to go through some of the things i've heard and seen then kudos for you. You've met a decent and rare group of people.

I am entitled to my own opinion. I will say whatever I want, whenever I want. If you can't handle it then that's your problem. I respect your feelings about your Frat. More power to you. Have all the fun you can. The parties are great but don't expect me to just shut up about it. It's the way I feel. I'm gonna say something if I feel the need to and especially when you put it out there. It's fair game.

I respect the fact that you have an opinion on the matter, but I don't understand the Negativity towards it. I mean I never once accused anyone of being beneath me because they aren't Greek. Now you may quote me on the Social Curve, but from my experience at my school, the people who are Greek just are more refined if you will. Many of the independents at my school are unkempt, unwashed, rude, and for some god forsaken reason, they take pride in this. I don't know where they were raised, but in my house you take pride in your appearance, you don't just go to classes unshowered, wearing dirty cloths with holes in them.

I also understand the Mixers idea and I still do those as well, hell I went to one on Thursday, what I am getting at though in the Networking aspect though is its another avenue for it. Mixers are great, don't get me wrong, but gripping up with a stranger in an interview, it says a lot more than any one mixer can do for you.

And like I mentioned, Greek Culture varies from Region to Region. Now, I don't know where you go to school (or I don't remember, forgive me), but I would wager that it is nothing in comparison to how seriously Greek Life is taken at my school. Over half the student population is in a Fraternity or Sorority of some sort.

And as far as the spending money and making an a** out of myself, I would like to mention the fact that Pledgeship is a tradition, it is something that, for the most part, is something that has gone unchanged for decades, and in some Greek Organizations, centuries. It is a shared experience (yes, I keep mentioning this), it is something that brings one's pledge class together.

It is the same sense as a Platoon doing Basic training together in the army, it is a shared experience, everyone has had to do it, and you do it together with the people who you are going to be putting your life in the hands of. Pledgeship is similar, not to the degree of Basic Training, but it has the same goal in mind, to bring unity through hardship. People improve and change the most when in situations of immense pressure.

As far as me spending the money on rush, there are people who have to do it every year, thankfully in my chapter, I get reimbursed for half of what I spend. Because of this, almost half of what I spent will be immediately paid off when Pledgeship starts.

Now as I mentioned in the beginning of my rebuttal, I don't understand the Negativity you have towards Greek Organizations, it may have been a bad experience, or the way the media portrays us, or you have some kind of vendette, but I will promise you this, I am not your normal "Frat Bro", I am more cultured than the Natty Light shotgunnning Neanderthal. I am more of a gentleman than the Chauvinist "Make me a Sammich" Douchebag. And I am by far more understanding than the "I come from Old Money so I am Better than You" Spoiled a*****e.

I was that quiet nerdy guy in high school and I came to college and I became something else. I realized the summer of my Senior year that I had maybe two or three close friends, and even then I rarely hung out with them. I was a fiend for online games, and I hated myself. I came to college and reinvented myself, and I found something I could take pride in, something more real than a gear score or an achievement, I found an organization that I could be apart of, something that I could make a difference in, I found a Fraternity.

I changed as time went on, I had friends, not because I paid for them, no, but rather because they liked me for who I was before I even joined. Because of this, I now have forty people I can call my best friends, forty people I can safely put my life in their hands, forty people who will at the drop of a needle stand to defend me, and forty people who aren't afraid to critique me. A brotherhood is more than something you buy, its something you build, and trust me, the ties at the Beta Beta Chapter of Beta Theta Pi are of those which are not so easily cut. They are built and reinforced by tradition, experience, and a shared ideology. We are men. We are brothers, and I'll be damned if I let someone smear mud on the name of something I take way too much pride in.

Man... It's a good thing I'm too lazy to be reading all of this right now. Likely, I'll be just as lazy tomorrow, too. xD

So I can't really tell y'all to shut it, since you're harshin' my buzz, since well... Ya know, I haven't read enough for my buzz to be harsh. xD
Never mind that, however, for I shall leave with a simple little thing. Play nice, or I shall smite. xD
Or at least, I'll try and find a product in which I can use to smite. xD

Mana: Dang, what go you happy? XP

Crafty: Yeaahhhh, no.