This year’s letter is born out of a conversation I recently had with a fraternity brother during his visit to Los Angeles.

Think about all those competitions your chapter takes seriously. During my time at the Lambda Iota Chapter at the University of Central Oklahoma, we prided ourselves on our preparation for Intramural Flag Football, Basketball, Homecoming Week, our Homecoming Float, the Homecoming Cheer & Dance Competition, Homecoming King, Greek Week, Spring Sing, and, of course, trying to achieve Robert Adger Smythe recognition. For your individual chapter, the list might look different, but the endless competition remains the same. In our minds, we needed to be better than every other chapter. By winning these annual events, we would stash away bragging rights that we would then turn around and use as a recruitment tool. We added stress, tireless nights, dips in grades, and even a few injuries to our lives in an effort to appear a more well-rounded organization on paper to an 18-year-old kid out of high school.

For some, looking back, it is easy to think none of this stuff mattered. In the grand scheme of the college experience, these things counted for very little. I understand that idea. If that’s the way we want to present it, then I agree. If we reframe these events, choose to focus less on the competition, and more on what was gained, then I couldn’t agree less.

Intramural Flag Football and Basketball taught our men teamwork. Homecoming Week taught our men organizational management. The Homecoming Float taught us the power of a deadline. The Homecoming Cheer & Dance Competition taught us talent recognition. Homecoming King taught us democracy. Greek Week taught us community. Spring Sing taught us the thrill of acting a fool. Robert Adger Smythe taught us organizational dynamics. When we reframe what we gained from competition, which is often associated with something negative, to the power of what we learned, everything changes for the better.

This reframing is what makes the Greek experience unique. Standing on the outside looking in, it is easy to see the competition as pointless and frivolous. Standing on the inside looking out, these are experiences non-Greek members could gain in the classroom or through a student organization, but something changes when you have paid to be a part of an organization. All of a sudden, you are invested in its success and a return on that investment. In these competitions, as well as the daily business of a fraternity or sorority, we see that investment immediately. If we give of ourselves fully, the investment begins to reap benefits that aren’t easy to name, but forever apparent. In fact, sometimes, we Greek members fail to properly name everything our chapter has given us. We know there is a debt to be paid though. Some of us are devoted to trying to repay that debt for as long as we are alive. This feeling of gratitude wouldn’t be possible without the lessons learned through competition. For that, we should be thankful.

Be good to each other,

-Nathan

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