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").