March 2000
I've pursued intellectual excellence for nigh on a dozen years now, and I'll tell you something. It's boring. I don't mean any disservice to academia - I may well pursue a good portion of my life in research, or teaching, or any of the countless technology jobs that scan for the all mighty GPA and industry experience. But what has made life worthwhile while I've been in college has been, and always will be, the people I've known. And nowhere in my life have I found better friends than those I found at the Gamma Tau chapter of Psi Upsilon.
It's so easy to find people on campus who spend their days complaining about classes and their weekends getting drunk or playing computer games - people who are in college just because. But it wasn't until I stumbled into Psi U a fall ago that I found many I would want to call my friends.
Until then, I felt horribly alone. School was good, I suppose - challenging, intellectually, but it all just seemed empty. When I found Psi U, I found people who were at school for more than the promise of a good job, more than an excuse to get out from under their parents and party for four years.
I studied that semester, and the next, and the next - as I have ever since my father passed his workaholism onto me. But whenever the nights got too late, whenever I needed someone to keep me from going off the deep end, I would see brother Chaffin online, and we would grab a bite at Copper Kettle, and sit and talk. Whenever I needed someone interesting to talk to - about life, troubles, women, or drunken blabbering about quantum physics I could just wander into the house and find someone. And when I started acting at the student theatre, I found brothers acting right along side me.
At Psi U I found people who cared - who cared about life, who cared about each other, about literature and music and love, and who welcomed those who didn't fit in with other crowds.
At a school like Georgia Tech, the system weeds people out, sending them home with a red rejection stamp imprinted in their record. But at Psi U, they judge you not by your grades, your background, your religion, but by who you are. It is a place where you can find acceptance because you are a worthwhile human being, and where you can spend four of the best years or your life growing and learning about things more important than anything you will find in any classroom. The brothers of the Gamma Tau are the best friends I will ever find.
These days, when I strive for excellence in my classes and in my performances, I do it with the hope of giving something back to Psi U through my good renown. When we rush, I hope I show the newcomers as much warmth and camaraderie as the chapter showed me, so that when my turn comes to move on, those who remain will be happy to say "Yeah, he's one of ours."