A HIGHER STANDARD

A couple of weeks ago I talked to an incoming college student on what it means to be a member of a sorority. She asked the standard questions about dues, required events, GPA requirements, and community service hours. I answered her questions honestly and then she looked at me and said, "That sounds like a lot."

In that moment, I'm not sure what came over me, but I replied with, "Yeah, but that is what sorority women do." This probably came off a little more snarky than I anticipated, but the conversation stuck with me the rest of the day. As members of sororities we are held to a higher standard. We have requirements set forth by our inter/national organizations to help us achieve more and become our best self. Sororities are not asking that every member do 1000 community service hours a semester while maintaining a 4.0 GPA while serving as a chapter leader, but we do have to maintain minimum requirements to keep our membership.

I totally understand this confusion from PNMs, but when I hear questions about "why we have to do this or that" from members I cringe. Honestly, I think we should get it. We made it through recruitment where we had a certain GPA, we had to show that we believed in the values of our sorority... so why, once we receive a bid, do we tend to forget that living those values is what we signed up for? 

As new members and members, it is our responsibility to uphold the image of our sorority. We are the ones who serve as a definition of what a ___ is to everyone that is not a member. We should constantly be striving to hold ourself to a higher standard, not just to look good during recruitment, but to make ourself better.