To be or not to be?

In the fall semester of 2005, I joined the Sigma Chi fraternity. A decision that I will never regret. As with all things, there are both positive and negative things that come with being a member of a fraternity. When it comes to being a member of Sigma Chi, I feel that the positives out weigh the negatives.
Some of the negatives that come along with being in a fraternity include: being stereotyped along with the idiots of the greek system, spending countless hours doing house activities, as well as the financial drain of being in the fraternity. I feel that it is unfair for fraternity men to be stereotyped the way that they are. Off course you are going to have idiots anytime that you have a large group of 18-24 year-old males assembled together. It just that ours stand out in a crowd due to their letters. This is not easily solved, because there is no system wide check on who is and who is not allowed into the greek system. Another negative aspect of being in a fraternity, is the amount time that it takes to be greek. To keep this short, there are a lot of obligatory events and meeting associated with being greek. So much time is taken out of your week that time spent with family and school inevitably declines as well. Another negative thing about being in a fraternity is the financial drain of it all. Despite what most people think, fraternities spend their money on more than just alcohol and girls.
At the end of the day, it is easy to see how people can get frustrated with being greek. The most redeeming aspect of being greek is the friendships that are formed. I have been a social person my whole life; making friends has never really been a problem for me. I have had close friends from primary school. I have had close friends from all the sports that I played in growing up. Yet the friends and connections that I have made over these past four years are unlike any that I have experience before. I can honestly say that there are lots of people that I want to know the rest of my life. Being greek has given me more life stories, than most people get in a life time. Although my grades are not nearly what they would have been had I not joined, and I live the life of a poor man. I still choose my fraternity. I do not think that I would have made it through to the end of my college career had it not been for my fraternity brothers. There have been many times when pressure from school or work have really troubled me, and whenever the pressures became too much, they where always there by my side to see me through. In the next five to ten years we will all see if my investment in social capital over grades will pay off.