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November 7, 2008

1.  Living the Frat Life: Dang! It’s been a long time since I last wrote on here! In any case just to quickly fill in the gap since last time I am currently running for VP of Public Affairs for IFC and I’ve already done my debate for it. Now I have to wait for another two weeks for elections. My big (who has been on IFC for a year, and who just ran unopposed for another position on IFC) keeps telling me to campaign, but I really don’t care that much if I get the position or not - I’ve done what I felt as though I was obligated to do and now I’m done. If I get the position then great!… if not then whatever. I’m still running for VP of External for my house. Me and the guy who’s currently next in line for President have been making our cabinet and platform. It’s fun stuff let me tell you! We’ve just been dealing with a lot of unfortunate events here recently.
2. Nebraska: So about four weeks ago we got a call from a chapter from Nebraska saying that they were coming down for the OU v Nebraska game. They said they had a hotel and were bringing down about 15 girls, but they might need to crash at the house. At 6 a.m. on Halloween they showed up on a charter bus, without a hotel or any girls. We gave them places to sleep. At 6 p.m. another bus showed up full of guys and girls from Nebraska. Turns out there were two chapters of guys that we said could come down… one chapter for Lincoln and another from Omaha. The Omaha group were horrible. They creeped on our girls and at the end of their stay they spayed a fire extinguisher in our stairwell and threw flower and coffee all over our kitchen - all of our guys were asleep at 7 a.m. so we couldn’t stop them. The Lincoln chapter however, we have few if any complaints about them.

… November 15, 2008

1. Living the Frat Life: Okay, so either I’m A.D.D. or I just got tied up, I never finished the last post… anyways, so to catch up from where I left off, and to update on what I’ve mentioned above: On the topic of IFC positions, I can say (unofficially) that I am now the new Vice President of Public Affairs for the Inter Fraternal Council at University of Oklahoma. I haven’t yet decided if I’m excited. Nominations for In-house elections are Sunday and I have a free seat to VP External. The idea of holding both of those positions seemed a lot more doable two months ago… now that they are coming into action… I’m not so sure.
2. Philanthropies: Next Thursday is our first big house-event this year. We, with Pi Beta Phi Sorority and International Advisory Committee (IAC) are holding our first annual International Banquet. We will have some 200 people inside our house and I’m in charge. Not to mention right now we are in the middle of my Bullies program (a program that I adopted from my high school) where a small group of young adults (students) mentors to 2nd graders about Bullying. So far it’s going really well. We are mentoring at Cleveland Elementary with one 2nd grade class, and we expect to branch out to the other three classes in the spring.
3. Skool: Classes aren’t exactly going so great right now. I’m expecting a 0.3 drop in my GPA. That isn’t horrible, but definitely isn’t great either. I’m hoping that as I move into my major specific courses I will even out in my course workload and overall grade point average.
4. Living the Frat Life; Part Duex: So, the pledges were initiated this week. Congrats to them. It’ll be tough not seeing them as pledges anymore, but as the spring pledge class comes in I think they’ll transition nicely. I’ll try to keep more up to date, but with my schedule, and the way things are lining up, I’ll give no promises!

October 25, 2008

1.  Living the Frat Life: Well a lot has happened since the last post. Homecoming is over… for all the time and work that we put into everything we didn’t even place. That’s alright. At times like these it’s best to just sit back, take it all in and not worry about it. I still have two more years to watch someone else do Homecoming. Next year I think it’s pretty well situated that I’m going to be VP External of the Fraternity… unless something goes wrong and I’m elected President. I’m not even joking, that’s a really concern of mine - people are talking that it’s been between me and another guy (mostly in joking). I know that I’m not ready to be president even if I wanted it. 

… more later.

October 9, 2008

1.  Living the Frat Life: Well, we had Big Bro/Little Bro this week. That was fun… I guess. I didn’t take a little out of the 24 pledges we have, so that was kind of depressing. But whatever. Despite the fact that none of them preffed me as their Big until the end of preffing, I figured that I should take a Little I want (i.e. someone who will take on my legacy (jn one way or another), or someone who I can teach to be a better man. Not gonna lie, I can’t wait to one take a Little. However I don’t want to take a bad Little just for the sake of taking one.
2. Maturity and Me: This is an interesting topic that I just thought up… Maturity is what people should have in order to be more socially acceptable. Maturity equals strength, wisdom, and respect. However, I feel as though while my goals including being a mature young adult, I am missing out on many important [experiences] as a college student. Far too often do I find myself to sitting spaced out while even just at the house as if my mind has just shut down. I contribute this to the fact that I have not taken much of a vacation or “me time.” I don’t play video games and I very rarely watch T.V. other than weekend football. I’m slaking in my classes because all I want to do is shut down and sleep, even if I’m not tired. I don’t feel depressed, just burnt out. One thing that I’m really looking forward to is this weekend - OU/Texas Weekend!!! I’m going down to Dallas with some friends and I’m just going to “lose my maturity” if you will. Honestly I can’t really see that happening because I don’t want to get arrested, but I’d love to just have nice vacation from everything. I haven’t been home since the beginning of September for my little brother’s birthday, which I think is the longest I’ve been away from home. I’m not homesick, but last year when I did go home on a weekly basis I got my down time - my little “mini-vacations” if you will. I don’t know. I’m guess I’m just tired of my maturity controlling me.
3. Skool: OK. So school isn’t going so well right now. That’s pretty much all I have to say. No wait, Homecoming. That’s all I have to say. 

October 1, 2008

1.  Bang Head Here: … Ugh! iNo bueno! iYo necesito tiempo personal! I feel as though I’m running through a vat of orange custard. I’m going nowhere fast, well slower than I would in a vat of dreamcicles and butterflies. I’ve gone and done it - I went and put my fingers into too many pots, and now my hands are playing twister. Ok, enough metaphors. In literal terms, my schedule cannot keep up with what I want to do. And at that, I cannot physically keep up with my schedule. I’m so drained I don’t even want to think. That’s not promising considering I have an Exam tomorrow, and two Exams on Thursday, and a draft for my news story due… tomorrow (which I have yet to start, and will not have done). I have/had two photo assignments for the Daily: One I never got around to doing, the other I’m planning on doing tomorrow… sometime. Oh, and did I mention it’s Homecoming season?
2. Homecoming: KILL ME NOW!!! Not literally, but I didn’t know that being CO-Homecoming Chair would mean that I was in charge of all of Homecoming. There are essentially three parts to Homecoming: 1. Float - that me 2. Dance 3. Art. I AM ONLY CONCERNED WITH THE FLOAT! Nothing more. More specifically, I am only concerned with the design and pomping aspects of the float. Construction is not me; getting a trailer to build the float on is not me; securing power tools to build the float is not me. That should have been delegated out a long time ago. Tomorrow is our first day to actually start pomping, considering tomorrow is our fist day to actually have a trailer to build the float on. Tonight we (me and Lindsay - the AOΠ Homecoming Float Chair)  were supposed to tape off the letters for the skirt of the float. Oh! By the way the theme of Homecoming for OU this year is “Once upon a time in Sooner Land,” and our group’s theme (our group being five, yes five houses altogether) is “Where the Wild Things Are,” which is wicked cool! Homecoming isn’t for another three weeks and people are freaking out about us not getting started yet. Last year we didn’t start until two weeks before Homecoming started and we came in 2nd place. Calm your britches. We’re out for 1st and we aren’t settling. Let me tell you. That is unless I die before Homecoming due to a mass brain aneurism. (I can’t believe I spelled aneurism right without spell check!)
3. I’m I being effective now?:  My little slogan for the year is “Be Effective Now.” No matter what you are doing, find a way to simply be productive, helpful, useful, effective. With as much as I have on my plate I don’t think I’m being as effective as I possibly can be. I think that’s something I’m learning very quickly. Last year I was disappointed in the fact that I wasn’t as involved in non-Fraternity things as I could have been. This year I tried to change that with working with the paper as photographer and illustrator. Well, I’m finding that maybe the way I can be most effective is by being exclusively involved in Fraternity things. I am Philanthropy Chair, Homecoming Co-Chair, IFC Representative, and next in line for Exec. (not to mention I may possibly be on IFC Exec sometime in the future… we’ll see…). Therefore, I’m thinking that I should quit my volunteer position as photographer at the Daily. It’s fun, but I don’t have time to do my assignments, and I’m only hurting the paper. I’m just glad I’m able to realize that before my Editor tries to go and fire me, which she may do tomorrow after our staff meeting… Right now I’m doing my job well as Philanthropy Chair, as far as I can tell - and nobody can complain. That’s good news! Right now I have a student mentorship in the works with Cleveland(?) Elementary School to mentor 2nd grades about Bullies. I also am working on setting up and International Banquet with Pi Phi and the International Advisory Committee (IAC). That’s a lot of work in of itself with little things like class going on in between. Today is the end of Tuesday and it feels as though it should be Thursday, and I’m stressing. STRESSED spelled backwards is desserts. I wish I could turn all my stress into desserts, however I can’t because I’m too BUSY! Busy spelled backwards is ysub which doesn’t get me anywhere either. I have a calendar, among several, that is covered with sticky notes telling me what I need to do each day. Tomorrow, I have a test in Spanish, and an Exam in Anthropology: People of the World. Thursday, I have a test in JMC-Electronic Media, and an Exam in JMC-Writing for Mass Media. Sometimes life just sucks. But if I listen to Christine Michelle, I will know that “I will be OK, I will be OK, I’ll survive, I’ll move on, and I will see the day.” And all and most important, I will continue to be effective.

September 22, 2008

1.  en Title: So I might just be happy now. I’m no longer stressing. Today I spent the morning out in the backyard again. Last week I did that, but I got a serious sunburn. Ouch! You should see my legs. My left leg looks like Two Face’s face. I have all my Philanthropy stuff underway and I’m feeling confident. There’s still a lot of work to be done - by a long shot. However, I have the ball rolling, and no one can complain. As long as I get my one (1/2) day to myself to relax and recharge, then I’m smooth sailing.
2. A Boost? or Bust?: So today I looked on my Facebook to find that someone had commented on a picture of me from out last party. It just so happened to be some kid from my high school - “what the fuck haha derek fox?! that kid is the biggest loser! he cried when we werent going to let him be on pirate line so casey felt bad for him and let him fire the canon at the games hahaha come on tori get some class in who you kick it with hahahaha,” - someone sounds like they’re still stuck in high school… how weak is that? This is coming from a kid who, if I remember correctly, was a high school drop out… commenting on “the next president ‘09″ of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. (Not really, but supposedly I will have the option to run come December.) This awkward attempt at trying to burn me has actually boosted my confidence. I say awkward because I haven’t even seen this pot head in over two (2) years. I just thought it was random, and his ignorance made me laugh.
3. Living the Frat Life: So, drama is never short when living with 23 people. I never expected so much considering they’re all guys, however, I’m just glad that it’s toned down over the past two weeks. IFC is on a big “anti-alcohol” turn-about or whatever so people are drinking less… sort of. But less to a degree in any case, which I’m happy about. The other night I was just REALLY burnt out. I was just so sick of taking care of drunk people and playing “mom!” That is my nickname, “Mom,” but I don’t want to have to live up to it 24/7, and I wont. If I did, then people would run all over me, and “Mom” wont stand for that.
4. Skool: Classes are going really well for the most part. I’m looking at probably two A’s, two B’s and a C in a worst case scenario. Which is not great considering how early it is in the semester, but if I can keep it up (during and past Homecoming) then I will be happy. I yall remember anything from last year about Homecoming and me, and my 55 hours in one week of working on that darn float, then you’ll have something to look forward to come future posts. Especially considering how I am Homecoming Co-Chair… and Philanthropy Chair… and I’m running for IFC Public Affair VP in the next few weeks… and come December I’ll be running for some Exec. position in house… all while being a cartoonist and photographer for the Oklahoma Daily… ugh! lol!
5. Living the Frat Life; Littles: So… I want to take a Little… however, the Little I want isn’t pledging until Spring. Also, I haven’t been chosen as a preferred Big yet (which means none of the pledges, out of the 26, have thought of wanting me to be their Big… Yet). So, as I look for a potential Little, my Big wants me to look out for someone who will be able take on my family’s IFC legacy… even though I have yet to do that. At the same time I want to look for a Little who I can see myself in - i.e. someone who I can see has potential to take over my position as Philanthropy Chair, or someone who I can feel comfortable enough calling my Little Brother, and is someone who I’d feeling comfortable introducing to biological little brother as my Little. There probably shouldn’t be this much “stress” or thought put into this, or at least not as much pressure as I’m putting on myself for it. However, I don’t have to get a Little just yet, and if I don’t take one then that’ll be just fine with me in either case.

September 11, 2008

1.  D is for druggies: Did you ever have that friend growing up who you knew was making all the wrong decisions, but you felt bad about telling them how they should or shouldn’t live their lives (because, who are you to be telling them what’s right and wrong)? Well, I do! So from the beginning… actually, today: There’s this kid (whose name I will withhold for his… safety?), and he likes to do drugs. He says it’s not a problem and that he only does it recreationally. Is that a set up or what? When I question him about his little habit he tries to turn it back on me by saying that it’s no different than drinking alcohol… I beg to differ. [P.S. If anyone tells you that marijuana is not a gateway drug, then I should introduce them to this kid.] He does ecstasy, he’s tried cocaine (although he says he didn’t like it), he’s dropped acid,  shrooms and lots of pills that have names that only doctors should know. The sad thing is, this kid is in my fraternity. And what makes it worse is that everyone knows (mostly because he’s so open with it) yet no one does anything about it. People know that he stores weed in his room, and that quite possibly he smokes up in there (which both are grounds for immediate expulsion from the house). However everyone turns a blind eye. Now, I don’t want to talk about his personality or mannerisms - although I could rant about all the things I dislike about him on those grounds alone. No, I will stick to the topic at hand. Drugs. What do you say to someone who sees nothing wrong with lighting up a blunt everyday? What’s worse is that he attracts guys to the house with the lure of drugs and he brings over guys who are known users. ——————————————————————–Just to give you a little background as to where I’m coming from, when I was little my mom told me a lot about the effects of drugs on the body, about friends she had who used drugs and how they turned out because of them. I remember the exact moment when I was six years old alone in my room, when I vowed to myself that I’d never do drugs, never have sex before marriage, and never drink… until I got to college. (I gave myself some leeway with the alcohol because no one in my family drank alcohol other than my dad; he’d have a couple beers during football games. I figured in college I’d be more interested in football, and thus more interested in drinking beer. Turns out, I’m still living out my personal vow. Unfortunately, it was because of my need of purity, that I sheltered myself from all the “bad” things in the world, and passed them off as something that people did in far away places like New York and LA or something. Now that I know people who have these drug problems, me being the semi-OCD freak that I am, I want fix it all… uhg. —————————————————————————————————————–Alright, back to issue at hand. So this guy is very passionate about is views, and he will allow no one to tell him he’s wrong. The thing is, he is wrong. I hate to quote South Park but, “Drugs are bad, Mmkay.” Any substance that prevents you from being able bodied or able minded is a hinderance and should technically be avoided for the sake of the individual. I don’t harp on him, nor do I narc on him for his use - trust me he does that enough for himself. Honestly, I would love to simply allow him to walk down a road I would otherwise choose to forget, however it his public openness of his personal business that I hate. He naturally has a loud voice. For him, I will say that cannot be helped. Yet it is what he says and when that can be/should be prevented. I don’t want to be walking to the bathroom and hear how, “you can basically smoke anything if you roll it right,” when he is in his room with door closed and I am down the hall from his room. And anyone who says that it is a travesty if they are prevented from “sharing [their] wealth of knowledge by expanding rushees’ minds to a religious experience” in reference to hallucinogens is a D-U-M dumb. Now put that in your hookah and smoke it.

September 9, 2008 

1. Scholarship: Last night I studied for the first time since school started… The thing is, I haven’t really had to study much except for Spanish. However, last night was really good for me. I actually forgot about a meeting because I was studying so hard. Not to mention, just going to the library last night, it just felt right. Last semester I went there a lot to study. I found my little area in the library were I work best, and I find that it’s just comforting when I’m there. Sounds kinda weird, but it definitely helps out when studying. Anyways, last night when I went there it just clicked again and I really got into the mood to study. Hopefully, if I don’t bog myself down too much with other nonsense and focus more on school then I’ll do pretty well for myself GPA-wise this semester.
2. Leadership: So… ha… It’s 11:29 p.m. and I’m exhausted. Tomorrow I have three classes, and four meetings to go to. Two of the meetings are at the same time, but I’m working around that. Fun fun! Let me tell you. I have this International Banquet philanthropy that I’m working on and I have to set up a meeting for it next week, not to mention I have to run up to my old high school for a meeting to start a student mentorship program at a Norman elementary school next week as well. I am Philanthropy Chair for my fraternity, as well as Homecoming Co-Chair and Homecoming is coming up within the next month - oh, and I just designed our Bid Day t-shirts and I’m in the process of designing new rush pamphlets. I am SUPER.  At our last chapter I was nominated for a position as Vice President External for my fraternity after our last VP External resigned. I wasn’t elected, but I’m not upset at all. More than half of the guys in house have told me they want to see me as VP External, however I know the reason why they didn’t vote me in. Namely, because they don’t want to see me get burnt out prior to actual elections and end up not wanting to run for re-election in December. Come that time I will not be taking any positions as a Chair, and my only priority in house will be towards the VP position. Not to mention this fall I will be running for IFC VP of Public Affairs, and living up to my Big and Grand Big’s legacy. Basically, I might be weighing myself down too much. The fact that I wasn’t voted into office yet actually makes me feel as though I have guys out there who are looking out for my interests, and want to see me succeed.
3. Athletics: One interesting little tid-bit: one of our Intramurals Chair works at Best Buy, and by a chance of luck, got our house’s basketball intramurals sponsored by EA Sports. With this sponsorship our house basketball team gets free Under Armor jerseys with the EA Logo embroidered on them, (x) amounts of sports video games for any console, 30-50 Tiger Woods visors and the IM Chair receives his own EA/Under Armor hoody and tote bag.
4. Gentlemen: I’m not really sure if this next story fits under the section header, but I’m going along with it anyway. Alright, so last weekend was by anyone’s standards, drama-filled. Last Friday I had to deal with a pledge busting his eyelid open on a fire alarm - which set the alarm off and almost brought the fire department; the news of one of the members dealing with a girl who threatened to have a baby out of spite; a group of 7-8 SAEs drunk and angry at our door (at 3 a.m.) yelling about how someone punched one of their pledges in the face (as to this I had the situation under control on my own until our ex-VP External came up [well intoxicated] and threatening to start a fight); and one of our pledges getting a DUI. On Saturday and plenty of fun at the Bid Day party; and I dealt with (but was not so much involved in) members yelling at other members for being womanizers (which he had a good point when speaking of their character, but poor timing and couth when he yelled at them in front of newly-bid pledges after their Bid Day party). Personally, I think our members need to take a short hiatus from alcohol. Our house has a reputation as being a party house and for good reason. However, it is our new pledges’ expectation of continuous partying that is forcing our membership to not to hold well. Constant partying takes its toll on the body, mind and spirit and I think our members need some down-time to recover each.

September 4, 2008

1.  Living the Frat Life, Rush: Alright, so tonight we had open house. About 60-70 guys stopped by, which good. Not great, but we can dig it. Anyhow tonight we had this huge crawfish boil, with tons and tons of crab legs, crawfish, shrimp, sausage, corn on the cob, and new potatoes. It was all spread out on four tables pushed together. I ate a lot of crawfish and crabs - it could have been spicier, but I’m not complaining. I’m sure we had the best food/most amazing looking food out of any other house. Dean Coats spoke tonight, however I didn’t get to hear him because I was rushing so kid who was really interested in philanthropies, and I as philanthropy chair had to talk to him. On an unrelated note, today was freaking cold. Toping out at about 68 degrees when yesterday was a sweltering 90 something, it felt pretty cool. I did get to wear my new very fratty jacket and despite changing three times today I still got to dress fratty for rush which I was happy about. Tonight I spoke to my grand big, who was on IFC two years ago, and to my big about getting a position on IFC. I got some good advice, but for the first time it made me realize how much work I may have to invest into campaigning. Fortunately for me most of IFC exec at least recognizes me, even if they don’t know my name. Which is still a good thing. However, on another digression, I’m finding that I completely suck at small talk. I just can’t seem to do it. For some reason, at times, I’m a very quiet person, which doesn’t help much for rush, or for future Public Affairs operations in IFC. But in any case, tonight went well. We ended up talking a lot about other fraternities rush strategies and about how we could be more effective with ours. I’m sure that sounds riveting, but was actually a good talk, which got a lot of guys thinking about future rush - which is a very good thing. All I know is that I’m burnt out on rush… even though I think I’ve been saying that since the first day. Tomorrow is bid day and guys can finally officially sign to a house. However, I will be in class from 6-8:30 p.m. and at a Homecoming meeting at 9 p.m. so I’ll be completely missing out. That kind of sucks because then I wont be able to see or know how many guys we actually sign until late.

September 3, 2008

1.  Living the Frat Life, Rush: Rush is over!… kind of. The first part of formal rush (the house tours) is finally over. I lucked out tonight considering I had class from 6-9 p.m. while rush was going on from 7-10 p.m. So I only had to be there for three of the nine groups. Plus, I got to be fratty! Nice. Some of the guys said that the rushees were a little less responsive today, than yesterday. I don’t know, I can’t make any clear judgements on that. These kids did just tour through North Greek yesterday. Speaking of North Greek, one of the five large houses got in trouble for having a Miller Draft can in the bathroom. My Big, the IFC Judicial Vice President, found it and spoke to that house’s Chapter Advisor. Now we have a house-wide wager on who it was. In any case, the prospects are good that we’re going to have a very reasonable pledge class, and I’ve already been talking to a guy who is wanting to rush in the spring. I don’t want to think about numbers right now, because that just makes me worry and stress. Thank you dad, for handing down your genetic disposition for anxiety. If we do end up having a 35+ man pledge class… shoot! They’d out number the amount on in-house guys and almost the entire active membership. That alone is a scary situation to put yourself into. However, on the opposite side of the spectrum, I still worry that we may end up only signing like 15 guys, simply because that’s all I’ve ever seen our house pull. My plan right now is to not worry about it though. We have a Rush Chairman for a reason, and he’s doing a fantastic job! Honestly I was a little skeptical of him last semester, but seeing the work he’s put into rush this year, I can honestly say that without him our house would mostly likely stay stagnant and meager. Altogether though, I do get the sense that this will be a good rush. If I have said it before, then I’ll say it again, rush is the lifeblood of a fraternity. While as much as I may hate giving BS house tours, I can’t wait to welcome 25-40 guys into my brotherhood.

September 1, 2008

1.  Living the Frat Life, Rush: Oh, my Jesus it’s rush! If anyone ever told me that they liked rush, then I would have legitimate grounds for hitting them over the head with a hammer. Being on the rush-er side of things is not the dreamy “awe, look at all these little freshmen trying to get a bid card” kind of experience that I thought it would be. I mean, I should have expected it from spring rush last semester, but going through 9 rush groups with about 41 rushees in each, during 20 minute intervals today was ridiculous. I’m a tour guide for the house, which is great… simply because I can give good tours. However, I cannot chit-chat or small talk to save my life. This unfortunately leads to awkward pauses down long hallways. I am really glad that I have class from 6-8:30 p.m. tomorrow. That means I get to skip out on a good portion of rush. I’m supposed to be one of the faces of the fraternity: because I’m fratty, because I actually do work for the fraternity (as philanthropy chair, co-homecoming chair, and future Internal Vice President), and because I’m fratty. I’m supposed to rush more kids who have fratty potential to make our house more fratty… but it’s kind of hard to do that while wearing a suit. Frat attracts frat, just ask SAE. Suits look nice; suits look professional; suits can appear intimidating and powerful; suits are not casually fratty. I can’t wait till Wednesday when I can frat it up. I’m sure that sound pretty funny, but that day we are having a crawfish boil, Andy Coats (Dean of the OU Law College, alumnus of the Beta Omicron chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha here at OU, and former mayor of Oklahoma City) will be speaking, and I don’t have to wear a suit. I like wearing a suit, but I certainly can’t rush out of one. Not to mention, I don’t have a pair of trousers that are tailored for me specifically. In any case, tomorrow we get the other 9 groups who toured North Greek today. We’re suppose to step up our game because North Greek has a reputation for being impressive rushers… well, let me rephrase that. Half of North Greek has a reputation for being impressive rushers, and you know much about OU’s Greek life (at least within the past 5 years) then you could probably make an accurate guess at which house is an isn’t. By any degree I can say that this year is our year for potential. I can’t honestly say that this is our year to rise, but we certainly have the potential for it. Again, everything depends on rush - not necessarily the guys we pull from this week, but rush nonetheless. A good number (35+) means we will have limitless freedom to rise in the fraternity tiers. However a moderate rush (20-30) means we will rise among the middle-sized houses. And then a poor rush (10-20) will keep us at about the same size membership, and we will go nowhere. I know for a fact that we will not fail to at least meet poor rush standard, as we have already almost surpassed it. While I hate rushing, it is so important, and I am so committed to my fraternity that I will continue to rush. Suit or no suit, class or no class. I’m even making long-term plans with potential spring rushees and fall ‘09 rushees. In a weird and random connection, I just though how joining and being part of a fraternity is probably similar to having a kid. It’s necessary if the lineage is to continue; it’s a lot of work in the preparation; the delivery can be painful; sometimes you may dislike it, but you’ll always love it; and in the end it’s something you would never give up for the world.