Friends Outside of Your Sorority

Is it true you can’t have friends outside of your sorority?
Some people think this is true...

I have heard this statement many times, however, I have found through my own personal experience that it is not true. However, some people think that it is true. I joined a sorority as a sophomore, and already had tons of friends when I joined. I was just as close to my non-sorority friends as I was with the girls in my house. However, I did see girls that joined as a sophomore and gave up on their non-sorority friends. I thought this was childish and wrong. I made sure that this never happened to me because I really loved my non-sorority friends. Sometimes, actually, a lot of times I enjoyed hanging out with my non-sorority friends better. It gave me a chance to break away from being told what to do and being around the same girls all the time. It is nice to have the best of both worlds.

Forgetting about old friends is horrible. I lived in my sorority house for a year and never once forgot about my other friends. It can cause a lot of fights and problems between friends. For example, when I had to live in my sorority house my other friends were mad that I wasn't going to live with them junior year. However, there was nothing I could do because it was a requirement to live in the sorority house for a year. My other friends did not understand at first but I let them know that I wasn't going to forget about them. We now live together (my senior year) and I still maintain friends with my sorority sisters. This is definitely the best of both worlds because I was able to not fight with either of them in a tactful way.

It is also smart to have both groups of friends become friends. For example, I would have my sorority sisters meet my other friends and have them party together. It would take time for them to get along since there were hard feelings involved, but if they turn into friends we could all go out together without me having to pick which friends to hang out with. This is the smartest idea for anyone joining a sorority to do.

It is wise to have an open mind when you are in a sorority. Just because you are in a sorority doesn't make you better than anyone else. If you are in a sorority and feel superior, you are wrong. You should treat everyone as equals and realize that if you act like you aren't in a sorority then people will treat you with more respect. So many times people have come up to me and said, "You are in a sorority? I would have never guessed." I took this as a compliment, because most people see sorority girls as stuck up, and when you are nice and don't brag about being in one people see that as a good thing.