A Citizen, and a Pike

What does it mean to be a citizen?  Vote?  Pay Taxes?  Yes, and yes, but that's not the entirety of it.

Well, in the simplest terms, I believe that a good citizen is someone who works to benefit the community around them.

Oh wait.....that's also how I would define a good Pike.  Good citizens, and good Pikes:

Volunteer at Community events (like the Columbus Marathon).

Participate in student philanthropies (like the Rivalry Run and Walk a Mile in Her Shoes)

Those shoes really hurt.....

And, as far as a fraternal community is concerned, a good citizen is a friend, and a brother.  And in my opinion I am in good company with some of the best citizens I know.

In Review...

So last week we had a panel of Greek Life big-wigs (I mean that in an affectionate way, I'm not being a cynic lol) and they took questions and shared with us some defining moments and Greek to Greek advice that they've come to realize in their college careers.  So what did I take away from this presentation?  Let's review:

One thing that stuck out to me was when my own brother, Zack Rubin-McCarry, shared a little grain of wisdom.  Zack told the class about how he was our chapter president, and then when he ran again, he wasn't reelected to the position.  I wasn't in the chapter at this time, but I've heard about this from other brothers.  But I never heard Zack's thoughts and feelings about the whole thing, so I'm glad he decided to share.  Basically, he didn't take his loss in the election as a setback, but more so as a challenge and an opportunity.  He reevaluated himself and his priorities and channelled his time and energy into other outlets.  And look at the guy today.  I could call Brother Rubin-McCarry a lot of things, but a "failure" is certainly not one of them.  Being the President of IFC is kind of.......awesome to put it bluntly.  So I'm going to take away from his experience.  Pike's elections are coming up, and I may have been nominated for a position or two.  I'm going to put forth my best effort in the elections, but hey if it wasn't meant to be, than that's just fine.  I'm simply going to continue working to benefit Pi Kappa Alpha, titles or no titles.  The title that appears on the business card should not define the name that comes after it.  Zack didn't need to be "President Rubin-McCarry" to be seen as a leader, so I'm not going to restrict myself either.

Another awesome snippet of advice that was shared was "get excited".  Seriously!  Come on!  We go to the greatest school in the nation, and we are all part of an amazing community.  And we only have 4 (or 5, or 6) years to really be a part of it all.  (Yes, you're a member of your organization for life, but the college experience is certainly not a life-long one).  What's not to be excited about here, huh!?!?

I had a great high school experience.  Seriously, it was great.  But my one complaint is that it went by way too fast.  Before I knew it, it was over.  I'm determined not to let that happen when I leave OSU.  I try to appreciate the little things, and make as many friendships and memories as I can here.  10 years from now, it's the things that we didn't do that we'll regret.  Not the things that we did do (and with gusto, I might add).  I still have a little over 2 years here, and I'm gonna make em' count.  Excitement!

Greek Life!  Huzzah!

See ya at Mirror Lake tonight :)

Oathmeal

Oath?  A one word blog prompt?  Well, I don't really know how to go about addressing this one.  How about a real-world example?  This is 100% real guys, and I'm pretty sure it's 100% hilarious.  Don't believe me?  Then consult the official "Santa Claus Oath" website: http://santaclausoath.webs.com/

I will seek knowledge to be well versed in the mysteries of bringing Christmas cheer and good will to all the people that I encounter in my journeys and travels.

I shall be dedicated to hearing the secret dreams of both children and adults.

I understand that the true and only gift I can give, as Santa, is myself.

I acknowledge that some of the requests I will hear will be difficult and sad. I know in these difficulties there lies an opportunity to bring a spirit of warmth, understanding and compassion.

I know the "real reason for the season" and know that I am blessed to be able to be a part of it.

I realize that I belong to a brotherhood and will be supportive, honest and show fellowship to my peers.

I promise to use "my" powers to create happiness, spread love and make fantasies come to life in the true and sincere tradition of the Santa Claus Legend.

I pledge myself to these principles as a descendant of St. Nicholas the gift giver ofMyra.

-Phillip L. Wenz

Yes.  This is real.  But you know what?   As outlandish or certifiable as this might be, it's kind of cool to see a group of people (600 Santas and their respective Mrs. Clauses) be so extremely passionate about something that they make an oath to their "craft" if you will.  An oath that lasts the rest of their lives!  That's an important thing to note: an oath goes beyond a mere obligation, because an oath is lifelong, and relative to a lifelong passion.  That in my mind is first and foremost what Oath is to me.  Yes it's a promise, but it is a promise rooted in passion.  If that passion is building men of intellect and integrity, like Pi Kappa Alpha, then swear to it.  If that passion is serving the general public morally and rightly as, say, a doctor or a police officer, then swear to it.  If that passion is "hearing the secret dreams of both children and adults" and making "fantasies come to life in the true and sincere tradition of the Santa Claus Legend", well damn, just swear to it!

And don't break that oath.  It happens all too often in Greek life.  You don't hear about Santa acting in poor character (Billy Bob Thornton excluded).  Santa made an oath and he's sticking by it; the least we can do is work to stick by the promises we made.  Or else we don't have anything to look forward to except coals in our stockings next month.

P.S.  On the coat of arms above, all of the symbols mean something.  Much like Greek Chapters' crests.  And I think it's particularly hilarious that the two reindeer represent "designer bearded" Santas, and "real bearded" Santas, and how they must work together in unity and harmony hahaha.  Apparently the form of beard is a subject of controversy within the Santa community.  Just a little aside I thought was worth sharing.

Exposé! Lack of congruence within local fraternity!

k, so it's been a busy couple days, so now it's time for a blogging double feature.  First let's tackle the issue of how Pi Kappa Alpha and the entire Greek Community can be a little incongruent.

First of all.  Log on to YouTube.  Right now.  Do it.  DO IT NOW!  K. Once you're on YouTube, type in the word "fraternity" in the search bar.  Don't press enter or anything, just sit there and look over the suggested search results.  Pretty bleak right?

For those of you too lazy to open up a new tab and do this yourself, I will just list the results right here.

When you type in "fraternity" on YouTube you get the following (in this order!):

fraternity hazing
fraternity
fraternity war
fraternity paddling
fraternity initiation
fraternity fight

Why is it that when you type in the word "fraternity" into a search bar, the phrase "fraternity hazing" actually comes up BEFORE the word "fraternity"???  And the other hot fraternity-related search items don't exactly have positive connotations either.  "War" and "paddling"!?!?  Ridiculous!

Wait.  That's not too ridiculous after all.

Sometimes I wonder if Pike at OSU helped contribute to YouTube's prioritizing of search topics.  I've said it before, we don't haze.  But we have been known to cause a bit of a commotion in the past.  We have a history of stealing other houses' things, as well as having things in our house taken (i.e. composites, mascots etc.).  We've trash talked other institutions and in some cases been busted for it.  Which leads to awkward apologetic emails and soured inter-chapter relations.  Sometimes I wonder if it's a Pi Kappa Alpha prerequisite to be a fighter, cuz the search topic "fraternity fight" is sometimes applicable to us.  Yes brothers fight, but every once in a blue moon a confrontation within Pike may go beyond a little push-and-shove.  And that certainly isn't included in our mission statement.  Are we starting "fraternity wars"?  No, not at all.  But, I do wonder sometimes if something incidental went down between houses, Pike would be the first to cross over that line in the sand.  And I certainly don't want that, or that reputation as the "match in the gas tank".  BOOM BOOM.  Haha sorry, that's a little Pike lyric.  I just kill myself sometimes haha.  Anyway...

Another big thing is grades.  First and foremost we are students here at OSU.  We are here to get an education.  But sometimes our own personal YouTube search bars get their priorities mixed up and read something like this:

party
alcohol
girls
fraternity
gym
tan
laundry
Cane's at 2am
studying
sleep

Yikes.  With a list like that, it's no wonder our GPA's could use a little help.  We have a sort of formation process at Pike called SLAG.  It stands for Scholars Leaders Athletes Gentlemen.  I don't think I'm too far off when I say that "Scholars" comes first over the other three for a reason.  And that reason wasn't so we could make a cute little acronym.  No, the "S" is first because fraternities are open to students and scholars.  So as far as my chapter is concerned, as well as the entire Greek community- people need to be bumping up "studying" in their search bars.

I think the above, and a little of what I had mentioned in my previous post are what I would consider most incongruent within our community.  And all of this isn't beyond fixing.  Some of this just takes a simple change of perspective and a little re-prioritizing.  We're Greek.  We say we are capable of some pretty awesome things, so let's stop talking and start walking.  Take this for example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5CqE3rPxEY

This is an act called "Fighting Gravity".  They were competitors on America's Got Talent.  They are college students at Virginia Tech.  And they are all fraternity brothers.  (They're Pikes. Sorry, I can't help but brag a little).  Anyway, the thing I like most about this video is at the end, when one of the judges asks "Who are you?"  And the one guy answers "We're Fraternity brothers".  And the crowd goes nuts.  He didn't even specify which fraternity, or whatnot.  The audience was simply blown away (as was I) and America got to see what kind of creativity and dedication fraternities are capable of producing.  It might sound crazy, but I think Fighting Gravity is winning major points for Greeks across the nation, and they are certainly combating some of the stigma that surrounds us.

I live for that day when people will log on to YouTube and type in the word "fraternity" and the list will be as follows:

fraternity
fraternity brothers
fraternity scholars
fraternity leaders
fraternity athletes
fraternity gentlemen
fraternity service
fraternity philanthropy
fraternity housing
fraternity involvement

and finally.....ah hell.....why not? ;-)

fraternity party (to celebrate "fraternity accomplishment").

Our Leadership Initiative

Hey all,

so my group and I (Sam C., Chelsea, and Eli) have hit the ground running with our initiative.  Last night some fliers were distributed to a majority of the houses, I sent out a mass email to all of my UIFI/BGLI connections, and Sharrell has emailed our proposal to every chapter's president, and chapter advisor.  So hopefully you've heard about this.  If not, here goes:

We feel that the off-campus area isn't the safest.  Especially at night.  So we are going to collaborate as a Greek Community here and make stuff happen.  On Thursday, we are hosting Captain Dave Rose of the OSU Police Department, where he will make a presentation on ways we can combat and prevent crime in the area, and also update us on current crime trends.  The event will be at 8pm, at the Pike house (141 East 15th).  ALL are encouraged to attend.  If you can't make it, please be sure that you have at least one delegate from your chapter in attendance.

And this is just step one of our initiative.  We are going to take this to the next level....cuz we're awesome.

Setting the Bar

Pi Kappa Alpha will set the standard of integrity, intellect, and achievement for our members, host institutions, and the communities in which we live.

Those are some strong words.  I especially am a fan of the word "will".  Pike WILL do this.  Pike WILL do that.  Pike WILL set the standard.  This reminds me of a line from one of my favorite movies.

I'm sure you've all seen the movie Amistad at one point or another.  (or at least I hope you've seen it).  Basically, as far as backstory, a mutiny occurs in the 1800's on a Spanish ship (called the Amistad) that is carrying slaves from Africa to America.  Once the ship reaches America, a huge legal battle ensues as to where the slaves belong.  (Are they American property?  Spain's?  Should they be freed and sent back to Africa?)  

Anyway, Matthew McConaughey plays a young attorney who is trying to free the slaves and send them back to their homes.  He doesn't speak their language, so when he is visiting the slaves in prison he brings along a linguist to help translate.  McConaughey says something like "Tell them I can't do that" or something like that.......

The linguist pauses and says "They don't have a word for 'can't' in their language".

That's powerful stuff.  Imagine if the word "can't" was taken out of our vocabularies?  What if we did everything we said we would do?  Does my chapter act in this way?  Well, now it's time to examine a little closer and see how congruent Pike is with it's mission statement.

I think Pi Kappa Alpha is full of integrity and intellect.  Yeah, our GPA isn't the tops, but we are still above the non-Greek average, and as a whole we are pretty smart people.  But intellect also entails good old fashioned common sense.  And I can say Pike exercises that when we can.  We avoid getting into trouble, and making a scene, and keep our eye on the prize.  And that to me is highly intellectual.

As far as integrity goes, I think everyone can work on being a little more honest and moral.  And my chapter is not any different.  One thing that I do take pride in our organization though is how we act as gentlemen.  We definitely show respect to all people, and especially women.  We discourage talking about other Greek houses behind backs, because it's been made aware that that is detrimental to the Greek community.  And we all look good in a suit and pin haha.

Achievement?  Well that's a little harder to touch upon.  I think that's the one thing we need to work on.  Yeah we are making waves with our whole move back to 15th and what not, but as a chapter I don't think we take pride in our achievements.  And that's because we don't have a very streamlined goal in mind.  Yeah everyone wants to be Chapter of the Year, but it's not going to happen unless everyone in the group hops on the Success Express here.  So that's something that I would like to try to change in the near future.

Excuse me.  That's something I WILL change.

Step Up and Be Accountable

Hey all,

Thinking about class and our discussions last week, I realized I forgot something. A value that is very important to me is accountability. This particular value was held in high esteem by a lot of other people, and I am a little angry with myself for forgetting to include it.

Basically, accountabilty is a lot of things: following through with your commitments, being reliable, dependent, and diligent, and finally, being able to own up to mistakes. In today's society, it's all about competition and perfection, and mistakes are not allowed. And in this dog eat dog world, it takes some courage to admit that something's wrong. A prime example is Toyota. If you have been keeping up with the news for the past year or so than you would know that Toyota had to recall 72,000ish automobiles because of issues with the accelerator sticking. But instead of pitching a fit, and falling behind the competition, Toyota embraced the challenge. Repairs were made by both Toyota and dealers to affected models, and the dent in Toyota sales was significantly diminished. Also a publicity campaign was launched in order to clear the air and to retain customer loyalty. Check it out:

Another cool thing about Toyota is their philosophy. The company works around five basic, but necessary principles that obviously help shape their success. (If you couldn't tell, Toyota is a Japanese company, so some of these principles are in Japanese haha)

1.) Challenge

2.) Kaizen (improvement)

3.) Genchi Genbutsu (go and see)

4.) Respect

5.) Teamwork

All of these are exceptional values to have, and the numbers prove it. Toyota is a values-based, accountable company, and I wish only the best for them.

However, the only organization I love more than Toyota (Pi Kappa Alpha, excluded) is the good ol' USA, and as much as I gush about them, I still buy American made. Chevrolet, all the way :)

Personal Values

My values?  Ok then:

First of all, I would define "values" as things either physical (like family, and friends) or more ethereal (like faith, or morals) that have a lasting presence and impact in our lives.

I may have mentioned before, but my main values are family, my faith, and music.  My friends and my fraternity are also both very valuable to me.  On the more immaterial side of things, I value honesty, self-respect, and optimism.  Punctuality is also something that is important (and something I need to work on), that in today's society is sometimes taken for granted.  Let's see......an empathetic mindset is something I appreciate, as conversation is much more intelligent when all parties take the time to look at opposing viewpoints, and formulate a bigger picture.  

And finally...

It's been said that laughter is the best medicine, and I find that to be the case.  I feel like if you can laugh with someone, then everything else comes naturally.  It is the most effective icebreaker.  I try to crack a smile out of people when I can, because I know for a fact that if you can laugh with someone, other people gravitate toward you.  Granted, it is also important to know when laughter isn't appropriate.  So no more dead baby jokes.

Haha

"Laughter is a powerful thing.  Why, sometimes in life it's the only weapon we have!"-Roger Rabbit

Scream! Until you can scream no more!

Like I mentioned below, I am majoring in Music Education.  So twice a week I have a class called "Voice Studio".  Basically I meet with  7 or 8 other Music majors and we perform various pieces and receive constructive feedback about our performances, and perceptions of the music.  (At the end of every quarter, we have to perform for a panel of faculty in a Jury, in order to continue on to the next level of music courses).  So it's a really great class.  The professor is really great too, but I learned this week that she is also a little ignorant.

Last Thursday, a girl performed The Winter Wind (words by Shakespeare), and let's just say it was a little rough.  Our professor asked her if she was sick or something, because her voice sounded a little raspy.  "No, I'm not sick, I just cheered really loud at a football game this weekend."

Out of nowhere, our Professor asked the class if anyone had any intention of joining a Fraternity or Sorority.  I raised my hand and stated that I was already a brother in one.  Then I got "the eye".

"Huh. OK."

The teacher then went on and blatantly discouraged anyone else from joining Greek life.  As singers, apparently being involved in a Fraternity or Sorority is bad for the voice.  What!?  That's sort of a ridiculous accusation.  But then she began to elaborate on how she used to teach two girls who were Vocal Performance majors.  They both wanted to join a Sorority, and at an event, the girls were told that they had to scream their lungs out to prove that they wanted to belong to that House.  "Scream! Until you can scream no more!"  According to my professor, they screamed their desire to join, until they lost their voice.  They both developed vocal nodules (bumps on the vocal chords that never go away, and severely damage your speaking and singing voice.  They can be removed by surgery, but at great risk to the throat.  E.g. Julie Andrews).  They had to give up any potential careers and their hopes of being singers, and had to switch majors to something much more monotonous.

I was a little shocked.  Yeah, I'm sure her story was a little dramatized.  But these urban legends aren't developed out of the blue.  Some of this was more than likely based on truth.  What compels the Greek community to exhibit such behavior?  The hazing stigma is obviously still very prevalent on our campus.  That's definitely something that has to change.  It's ridiculous, unpractical, and at time just cruel.  People shouldn't have to prove to us that they belong in our respective houses.  We should have to prove to them that going Greek is the best decision they could make in their college career.

And I'm proud to say (in a clear, nodule free voice) that I am part of a brotherhood that doesn't require its new members to prove their worth by screaming until their throats bleed.

So the next time my Studio congregated, (Tuesday), I decided to wear my letters to class.  I did it partially to combat ignorance, partially out of spite towards our professor.  But mostly out of pride.  And people noticed.

What!?!? A Blog!?!?

My initial reaction to this assignment was just that.  "We have to maintain a blog!?!?"  First of all, I hate blogs.  For my job last year we had to compose a detailed report of our shift and put it into a shared blog at the end of the night. 

So blogging as a whole has a very monotonous connotation in my mind.  But I guess this is a little different.  Definitely a little more personal, and a lot more vulnerable.  Which sort of freaks me out.  And to top it all off, our first entry is kind of broad.  "Who are you?"  Well, for starters I'd like to believe that I am a little more complex and interesting than a 2 paragraph blog post....but I think I can paraphrase and just squeeze in the the need-to-know.

Hello all,

The Fam-back row is A.J, mom, dad, me, and Daniel

front row is Maddie, Evie, and Jackie

So my name is Ben Nagel.  Benjamin Eugene is the full name.  Which makes my parents obnoxious because they named me that so my initials would be "B.E.N".  So obnoxious.  *shakes his head in disbelief*  Anyway, I was born in Atlanta, almost 20 years ago, and lived there until I was 6, then did a lot of moving around from place to place until we settled here in Columbus when I was 10.  I grew up around here and once I graduated from Olentangy High School, I knew I didn't want to leave, so I decided to attend OSU.  I love Columbus, and am thankful I grew up here, but I would honestly be happy living in a lean-to outhouse, as long as my family was with me.  Family is very important to me, and the other Nagels are definitely a huge part of my life.

We are Roman Catholic, and we are a stereotypically large family.  I am the oldest of 6.  I have two brothers Daniel (18), A.J (17), Evelyn (11), Madelyn (8), and Jacquelyn (6).  There isn't enough memory space on my computer for me to go into detail about my extended family.  But let's just say I have a Big, Fat, White Family.

So why did I join a Fraternity then?  I know a lot of people join because they never had brothers, and wanted a brotherhood experience.  That is obviously not the case with me, as I grew up with the two most awesome brothers any guy could ask for.  Daniel is on track to be Valedictorian this year, with a 4.5 GPA or something like that.  He can speak fluent Spanish, and actually spent this past summer in Spain teaching students English.  And A.J is a beast at basically any sport known to man, and he was recently featured with his friends in an ESPN interview, as well as on Yahoo!'s home page.  You may have seen the infamous "Golf Basketball Shot" before.

So you know, A.J is featured throughout the video (he even mixed the music), but he's most prominent at the end......when  he's running across the roof of an elementary school.  Epic shot though.

No, I had brothers.  That's for sure.  I more or less joined a Fraternity because I was growing a little distant from my dad throughout high school.  In my sophomore year of high school, his company was bought out, and he lost his job in the recession.  We were doing fine though, because soon after, he was hired to be the new Vice President of a small company.  The catch though was that this company was based in Kentucky.  Rather than uproot our Big, Fat, White Family, he got his own place in KY.  And he was only home in Columbus on weekends, sometimes not even that often.  This was trying on everyone in the family, and we all had to make some sacrifices, especially my mom who was tasked with single-handedly shuttling around and feeding six offspring.

The situation wasn't exactly supplemental to my relationship with my dad.  You'd think that when you don't see someone for weeks on end you could never run out of things to talk about.  Not the case.  It was almost like some stranger was coming home for dinner, when in reality it was my own dad.

Granted, him and I aren't all that similar to begin with, but we always were tight-knit.  I wanted to find that relationship again, so when I got to OSU, I was determined to join a Fraternity, because it would give me and my dad something to talk about and connect over.  (He was in Phi Kappa Theta at Ohio Northern).  And my evil plan worked.  Dad and I have definitely found some common ground, and things are getting back to the way they used to be.  Now I know that's not exactly the best reason to join a Greek institution, but it definitely worked out for me in the end.  Once I became a Pike, my social career at OSU took off.  The campus shrunk in size, I had a familiar face in every class I was taking, and I was meeting so many new people.  And I have like 52 more brothers now, bringing me to a grand total of 54.  Or something like that.  I think that's kinda awesome.  Not to mention all of the service opportunities, the leadership formation (like this class for example), and we all get like a free t-shirt every week!  I've never regretted going Greek, and I am so glad to be a brother of Pi Kappa Alpha.

Huh.  Well that's the bare necessities of "Who I Am".  So I guess the next question is "How do I want to change the world"...  My answer to this is hopefully not going to be as vague as the question itself.  Prepare for some elaboration.  I guess one thing I didn't touch on that is a major component of my life is Music.  Music has a huge, I mean HUGE presence in my life.  So huge, that it is what I am studying and hope to make a living out of.  My major is Music Education.  And therein is how I want to change the world.  I lived in a great school district that cared about the Arts, but I always heard horror stories of areas where levies didn't pass, or budgets were cut and students couldn't participate in art, theater, or music anymore.  That is something I am going to change.  I want to see Fraternities and Sororities be perceived as relevant organizations again.  But just as much, I want to see the Arts (especially music) appreciated more by society, and deemed just as practical, relevant, and educational as any math or science class.  Count on it.

Holy crap.  I just reviewed all the word vomit I threw up all over the computer screen, and I am kind of shocked.  I was not expecting to say this much, and hopefully my next posts will be a little less lengthy......because this is a little ridiculous.  But hey, I guess this whole blogging thing isn't so bad.  You just gotta do it.  Balls to the wall.  I have a sort of a life philosophy of mine, that I try to live by, which incidentally comes from one of my favorite movies of all time Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.  I will part ways this week for now, but I shall leave behind some words of wisdom from my close friend, Yoda:

"Do or do not.  There is no try."