Life outside the sorority

It is no secret to anyone who knows me that sororities are not really my cup of tea. To be honest, when I see the dozens of freshman girls huddled together for recruitment weekend each year, I typically roll my eyes or make a sarcastic comment. However, I’m a big enough person to admit that my views on sororities really just apply to me.

I understand as well as anyone how important it is to find your place at a school like LMU. I found mine at the Loyolan, and I completely understand that someone could find that same sense of belonging as a DG or a Theta. I support everyone who is trying to find a place that makes his or her LMU experience a more positive one.

That being said, it can be especially difficult on our campus not to be involved in Greek life. Take this weekend for example. Most girls on campus are busy with recruitment, so campus life is pretty much dead for a good 72 hours.

What I hate seeing is girls who join sororities because they feel like it’s their only option. I’m here to tell you it isn’t. If joining a sorority isn’t calling you, don’t do it. These tips may help you survive a non-Greek life:

1) Have some guy friends. That way, during Greek Week and recruitment weekend, you don’t feel the need to die of boredom while the majority of your girlfriends practice for things until midnight. Also, guy friends come in really handy during lip-sync, considering you probably don’t want to go alone.

2) Take pride in the fact that you will never have to utter the words, “I really don’t want to go to [blank], but I will get fined if I don’t!” Because while formals and date nights may sound appealing, the majority of sorority events are actually not at the top of a “fun-things-to-do” list. My friends in sororities complain about most of the things they are forced to go to, but I respect that it is worth it to them. It doesn’t mean, however, that it didn’t feel good to get to watch American Idol this week while they went to recruitment practice for three hours and learned how to flirt with girls.

3) Watch the television show “Greek” on ABCFamily. It’s seriously funny, and, while you laugh along, you don’t have to feel embarrassed that you partake in some of those same silly rituals. Considering it’s recruitment season, let’s take a quick look back at “Greek’s” most recent recruitment episode. The girls in the fictional television sorority were learning what hand signal to make behind their back when a conversation with a potential new member gets so severely awkward that they need to be “rescued” by another sister. I got to laugh at how ridiculous that is, while my friends in sororities were busy trying not to confuse the hand signals on Greek with the ones their sorority actually uses.

4) Have some great excuses ready as to why you cannot be on every Turtle Tug/Arrowspike/Almost Golf/etc. team you are asked to be on. Now, I know, those events raise awareness and money for good causes, but when you are one of the only girls on this campus not in a sorority you tend to be asked to do one of those things almost every weekend. In order to keep your good karma, maybe just tell them to buy one less American Apparrel shirt and donate that money straight to the cause.

5) The money you didn’t spend on sorority dues can be donated to helping the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Zing! (I know, that one was mean. Most girls join sororities because of the great philanthropy work they do, right?)

In all seriousness, however, I hope everyone had a lovely recruitment weekend.

Snap back to Reality

Some of us, including myself, need to come back down to reality.

For those who don’t know, over winter break the men’s basketball team went on a six-game winning streak, the longest the program has had in 15 years. While the wins were great to see, it unfortunately set expectations at an all-time high (and by all-time, I mean my past four years here), making the two disappointing losses to Pepperdine and USF that opened conference play almost unbearable.

After the team went 3-28 last season and 5-26 two years ago, let’s just say it didn’t take much to get us Lions fans excited. Earlier this season, a simple win was reason enough to celebrate. However, after the team showed promise early this season, and then went on to beat powerhouses such as USC and Notre Dame on the road, certain wins became expected.

Now, I think Head Coach Max Good would love to hear any fan say that, as he too expects for his team to win every game they play. While that’s obviously not going to be possible, building a program that expects to win is a good thing.

However, there is also a downside, and I experienced it driving home from Malibu two Saturdays ago. After winning six straight games, the Lions were set to open conference play against Pepperdine and San Francisco, the two teams in the West Coast Conference (WCC) with the two worst non-conference records. In fact, those two teams had a combined record of 9-22 before LMU played them. The Lions, on the other hand, were above .500 for the first time in years with an overall record of 9-7.

There was no doubt in my mind that we were going to begin conference play 2-0. I interviewed junior guard Vernon Teel right before finals, and even though the team had yet to go on its six-game winning streak, he too guaranteed me that the Lions would be undefeated after their first two WCC games.

After the game tipped off in Malibu, everything seemed to be going the Lions’ way, and they quickly jumped out to a 17-point lead. Not to relive the slow, painful decline again, I will jump to the final buzzer. The Lions lost 79-75.

Let’s just say that during the ride home from Malibu my head was filled with a lot of “what ifs.” What if Teel hadn’t missed some of those free throws down the stretch? What if sophomore Drew Viney hadn’t thrown the ball away on one of our final possessions?

Any sports fans will understand me when I say that thinking like that can make you feel crazy. But after about one hour, and two margaritas, I started to put the loss into perspective.

Even though the subsequent loss to San Francisco didn’t help this new perspective thing I was trying, the bottom line remains the same. The Lions are now talented enough to be a competitive team in the conference, but are not yet at the level to compete with WCC powerhouses like Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s and Portland on a regular basis. Therefore, we are really playing for a fourth place finish in the WCC, a spot that would grant us a very important first-round bye in the WCC Tournament.

The two early losses severely hurt those chances, there is no question about that, but hope should not be lost. It does mean that stealing a win against one of those top-three teams may be necessary, but from what I’ve seen from the team thus far this year we actually play better when facing tougher opponents. I think a win in Portland tonight is definitely a possibility, a possibility that is more likely if Viney returns from injury.

Good said it to me best after Saturday’s win at Santa Clara. He said that recently, “it’s almost like people expect us to be among the elite teams in the conference.” Expectations like that are just unfair, considering this team is the youngest and most inexperienced team in the WCC. While the Lions may at times play like an elite team, they just don’t yet have the experience to make that transition a consistent one.

Regardless, it’s going to be a wild, wild West Coast Conference, and for the first time in years, Lions fans actually have a team to be excited about. While some sloppy play late in games has put us in a bit of a tough situation, an upset victory over an elite team is going to be more important than ever. Luckily, it is also going to be more likely than ever.