It is what you make of it.

October 3rd, 2016 was the day that I joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon at West Chester University. I wanted to highlight some of the main things that I have taken from my experience in Greek-Life.

“It is what you make of it.”

Being President of my fraternity this past year I have heard so many things pertaining to my decision to take on these responsibilities. Sometimes I would seriously reconsider my decision just based upon what people have said, but I knew that I had a vision and a depicted image in my head of the path I would take in my organization. I often times would think about words I once read from Warren Buffet.

“You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing things with logic. True power is restraint. If words control you that means everyone else can control you. Breathe and allow things to pass.”

People have told me that I was wasting my time and that I would not be able to focus on my studies. People have told me I was putting myself at risk due to the negative connotations sometimes associated with the word fraternity. These words are what drove me to change that image.

On campus I knew I was a leader now, I had the power, privilege and opportunity to make a difference in my community. I was selected to attend Sigma Alpha Epsilon's 82nd John O. Mosley Leadership School in Phoenix, Arizona, prior to my presidency. One lesson that really stuck out to me helped motivate me to become the president. At one of the seminars everyone was asked to stand up and imagine a triangle in front of them. We were then instructed to trace the image with our fingers. After doing this for about a minute we were asked to then draw a circle inside the triangle. After a minute we were asked to stop. The room became silent for about 5 seconds while everyone wondered what the point of that exercise was. Finally, someone came on the stage and asked this question.

“When you drew the circle inside the triangle did you touch any corners of the triangle?”

Obviously the answer to the question was no. He went on to explain that students have so many opportunities on campus to get distracted, get lost, get involved, get overwhelmed and with all of these factors in mind students may find themselves running in circles, going from one thing to the next without getting anything done. He explained that to be productive you must think of your goals as points of a triangle and hit every corner before moving onto the next. 

This opened my eyes and helped me to carry out my job as president. It helped me to better the image, operations and efficiency of my fraternity. I came into my position motivated and eager to hit the ground running, three goals (points) that I set were to improve grades, exponentially increase our philanthropic results and make our operations more efficient and structured. Taking these three goals helped me to accomplish more than I could have ever imagined in a role that I was once told would be a waste of my time.

I used this method as a catalyst to my personal growth. I noticed myself changing rapidly while adapting to my new responsibilities and presenting myself with set tasks and goals as opposed to thinking of ideas and general concepts that I may or may not act upon. 

It was simple changes in my life that helped open my eyes to the bigger things. I began thinking of the operations of my fraternity as a business. I began analyzing tasks for positions and creating organizational charts with chains of commands and reporting methods. I began to factor different accounting and financial concepts such as collection rates, cash flows and interest rates on membership dues. I found myself using knowledge from my education in my extracurriculars.

Applying these concepts I learned in the classroom to problems or obstacles I would face in my role as president helped me to want to know more. I pushed myself to challenge professors and ask intelligent questions to maximize what I could learn hoping to get information that I couldn’t find in a textbook. While making these personal adjustments I found myself focusing on my goals point by point and taking a multitude of trips around the triangle (without cutting corners). I accomplished my goals and kept repeating the process, it was rewarding.

I never knew what I could learn from a fraternity and unfortunately some students never will. Some may never have these opportunities which is why I thank everyone who helped me and supported me in my role as president. That role made me realize that fraternities truly are what you make of them.