Chi O Loves Dubya

SMU made history yesterday with the grand opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library on campus.  Witnessing the excitement of the opening first hand as a student was one of my most valued experiences thus far in college.  I am so grateful to have been able to be a part of most of the opening events.  

My Thursday began at 8:00 A.M.  Two of my friends and I were up much earlier than usual and ready to watch the ceremony.  Unfortunately, we were unable to attend the actual ceremony unlike all of our other friends.  All of the Hunt Scholars and President Scholars were able to attend and bring a friend, and since Chi O has about 20 scholars, a huge number of us got to go.  Not wanting to completely feel excluded from history, we viewed the ceremony in McFarland Auditorium with a plethora of other students.  It was a lot of fun to sit with our peers (instead of watching it from the TV at the house, which would have been depressing) and watch the event, and we even got a program from the real thing.

After our early morning and with the knowledge that we would later be boulevarding for the first time since football season, we decided to turn in for a nice power nap.  Because traffic made it impossible for people who live off campus to drive to school, one of my friends decided to sleep on the floor of my miniscule pit floor.  Needless to say, my nap was cut short when my roommate(s) returned to the room from the actual ceremony.  Since I was so jealous that they got to attend, the last thing I wanted to hear was them talk about how great it was (kidding, kind of).

When 4:00 rolled around, we began getting ready for the Block Party to celebrate the opening.  My friends and I donned our most patriotic boulevarding gear, and headed out to the intramural fields for the celebration.  There were thousands of people gathered to eat at the various food trucks, enjoy the live entertainment, and most of all, welcome the George W. Bush Library to campus.  

Once it started to get dark, the entire crowd was instructed to go to the library.  In a heard like fashion, the thousands of people made their way to the outside of the library where we waited for the man of honor to present himself. To make up for missing the actual event in the morning of that day, my friend and I squeezed our way to the front of the crowd.  With one of the best views in the place, we watched the army choir perform patiently ultimately anticipating the arrival of George W. Bush, the man himself.  With a speech that was short and cordial, Bush thanked us for joining him for the special day, and declared that he was ready for bed. 

The event was ended with a spectacular fireworks presentation that rivaled a Disneyland show.  Overall, Thursday was one of the most special days of my life, and I will always cherish the memories from that day.

XO Love and Mine,

Kat

Sorority Myths Debunked

There are several myths and negative stereotypes surrounding sororities.  I recently attended a public forum where SMU students could express concerns about anything on campus.  One girl went to the microphone and began talking about her negative impression of Panhellenic Greek life.  She said that the stories that she had heard about sororities were always negative and reflected poorly on SMU in general.  She also talked about how they were exclusive organizations that worried only about finding friends to go to parties with.  She prefaced her spiel by saying, “I do not know anything about Panhellenic sororities first hand, I have just heard stories.”  This especially frustrated me.

 I felt that it was very ignorant and unfair for that girl to pass judgment off on an entire community of over 1,200 girls at SMU.  Each and every girl is unique and has a different reason for joining a Greek group.  While there are some girls who join a sorority for the sole purpose of finding friends to party with, a majority of girls do not. 

Aside from building friendships and close bonds, sororities are extremely involved with their philanthropies, value scholarship, and are prominent volunteers to the community.  The relationships formed through sororities last a lifetime, and the lessons learned from being Greek are invaluable and applicable to almost every aspect of life.

Granted, one sorority girl’s poor decisions heavily affect the entire community.  If one girl decides to use drugs, sleep around, or openly drink underage, people outside our community automatically associate all Panhellenic women with that girl.  Of course, it is unfair for people to put those assumptions onto all members, but it will continue to happen for as long as people continue to make mistakes.  The only way to fix this problem is for all Greek women to hold themselves to a higher standard for the sake of other Panhellenic members and make smart choices.  In the end, they will be benefiting themselves and all of their Greek friends.

It is sad that we as a Panhellenic community even feel the need to defend ourselves.  Our organizations have so much to offer and positively affect the SMU community in several ways.  Greek women are heavily represented in several in campus government, sports teams, and extracurricular activities.  There are several honors students, Hilltop Scholars, and Presidential Scholars.  In my opinion, Greek life breeds leaders. 

Next time, before a non-Greek SMU student assumes negative things about the sororities on campus, I hope that they remember all of the positive aspects these organizations possess. As a member who joined for the right reasons, I can assure those who have doubts that there is much more to a sorority than the social aspects. 

XO Love and Mine,

Kat 

April Fools Day

This week was busy at the SMU Chi O house.  Our National Consultant was in town to check up on the chapter and make sure everything was in ship shape. Since I am on the Executive Board, I was in several meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and this morning.  I learned a lot of handy tips to make my chapter announcements more interesting and engaging, and also about marketing the SMU chapter more effectively to the community, faculty, other sororities, PNMs, and our sisters.

While a majority of the week was spent dealing with more serious matters and attempting to impress the National Consultant, we allowed ourselves one day of fun: April Fools Day, which was on Monday.  Around the Chi O house, you are never safe from a good humored prank.  April fools day or not, there is a core group of girls who are repeat offenders to committing pranks.

My friend Katherine and I have been in a "prank war" with my suite mate Mary.  We are constantly taking turns doing something mischievous to the other. Mary has filled my water bottles with mouth wash, contaminated my Diet Coke bottle with vinegar (it ACTUALLY tasted rancid...), and hidden baby dolls in my room.  To clarify why she has baby dolls in the first place and to maybe make her seem less weird, my friend Kate dressed up as Angelina Jolie for a date dash and brought several baby dolls with her as a part of her costume.  The babies were just sitting in her closet (creepy), so we decided to put them to good use.

In return to Mary's jabs, Katherine and I have put the dolls in her backpack so when she gets to class she has to take it out in front of everyone, strapped them into her car, and put strange liquids in her water bottle.  We decided that we needed to do something on April Fools to redeem ourselves, since we had less pranks done than her.

Of course, we wanted to mess with more people than Mary.  In the Chi O house kitchen, we label food that we buy for ourselves at the grocery store and put them in the cabinet.  We labeled several cans of cat food with Kate's name and put them in the cabinet as our first prank.  All day we overheard people saying things like, "Kate is the one feeding the ferrel cats..."  We also bought a sparkling laxative drink and labeled it with our friend Meredith's name.  She did not notice it all day, but others did..

Katherine and I struggled thinking of a good enough prank to do to Mary all day.  It needed to be bigger than anything else we did before.  After Mary heard about the things we did to other people, she began to get nervous about what we were going to do to her.  Once we realized that she was looking out for something, we kept telling her things to make her more nervous.  She spent all day expecting something to happen, but nothing ever did.  It was a lame prank on our part, but we figured it was better than nothing.

XO Love and Mine,

Kat