I’ve had this thought for a long time now.
Knowing how wonderful your Greek experience has been, what your sorority or fraternity means to you, and what yours values in the ritual, would you have gone through hazing activities to get to where you are now?
Looking back, if you knew it would be as good as it is, would you have accepted hazing to have the experience you have, and to live the ritual you live?
My sorority is completely anti-hazing. Zero tolerance. You do it, you are out. But I have found myself wondering about hazing. Not considering it by any means, but wanting to know, the point in it I guess. What does it build? I understand the idea of earning those letters, but don’t we do that through our new member periods? We are held to a standard, told to come to educational meetings, and tested on the information. If you chose not to come to these meetings you forfeit the rights of being initiated. If you don’t pass the test you do not get to be initiated. These are things that every initiated member had to do, therefore they earned their place in initiation. They earned those letters. If you do not hold yourself to the standards of membership your organization has, or violate national policies, you lose the rights to wear those letters, have your membership terminated, and are forced to forfeit the paraphernalia sporting the letters and terminology. These are things each organization values and only those who are true to the organization should own. Each organization is alike in many ways, but each has their own traditions and rituals that make them unique. An experience in my sorority may be worlds different of another on campus. It is the people that make the experience different and the ritual and values that make it an incredible experience. But knowing how incredible your experience is, how beautiful and touching your ritual and how dear your values, would you have accepted hazing to get there?
I think about this a lot. Probably more then I should, probably a lot more then someone who wasn’t hazed. I’ve never met someone who was hazed (that I know of) but have heard the rumors and whispers, and seen a chapter disbanded because of it. I hear of the affects hazing has on individuals and organizations and know the laws that go along.
Ultimately, though I would do anything for my sisters and for the sorority I hold dear, the idea of being hazed to get to the point I am now as a member is completely dreadful. My sorority holds the values of faith, hope, love, power, and wisdom. Looking at these hazing can do nothing positive for any of these five values. Hazing does not show faith, in either a higher power or the sisters you hold dear, neither does it show hope, only except that you are hopeful it would end. Power I suppose hazing could show, but only in the negative sense of an older member who is doing the hazing has power over a younger member. Wisdom, a wise person wouldn’t stay in a sorority that hazes. That’s that. And ultimately love, which I hold dear to my heart, no part of hazing shows or can build love.
So to answer my own question, would I have accepted hazing to get to where I am now? No, because though my experience is wonderful, and the ritual is the most beautiful thing I’ve been a part of, hazing would overshadow this completely. I wouldn’t be able to look at my sisters the same way, respect them, or respect my national organization.