All those years ago, St. Catherine of Siena was right! Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring! Then why are so many of our members willing and wanting to walk away from our organizations when things get hard or difficult situations arise? Do we have an obligation to live our Ritual when times gets hard and when our organizations are being called into question by so many? My answer would most definitely be yes!
Trust me, there have been many challenging times when I wanted to walk away from my own organization for several different reasons, but I was always called back because I know that I stand for something more. I stand for justice, friendship, and truth….and at the end of the day, I firmly believe that I have been called for a bigger purpose to pass those values on to those who come after me in my own organization, as well as in the world today.
What is right is often not the easy way. It is easy to simply walk away and not work for change or the overall betterment of our world today. It is easy to depend on others to stand up for what is right instead of burdening ourselves with an additional daily task to live by what we have promised to live by. Putting the time, talent, and treasure into accomplishing something is definitely the harder road to take. So many questions remain about the relevancy of Greek lettered organizations in our world today and to be honest those questions are fair and very well warranted - but we can be better! WE MUST BE BETTER!!!
I am 3% of the world’s population who began a Ph.D. program and actually finished - 3%!!! I had that percentage on post-it notes and written in dry erase markers all over my apartment for the last year and a half of my program to help get me through. I didn’t quit (although there were days when I wanted to!). I had good people surrounding me and supporting my efforts, pushing me forward on a daily basis. It was hard - very hard to put something new into the world and not know how it was going to be received. I’m still doing that! This website and sharing my research is the culmination of my work….and I want it to matter! I’m getting there - slowly, but surely.
To the world, I say continue to challenge the Greek system - we deserve every question thrown our way! To those living within the Greek system, let’s think of new ways to live our Ritual. Let’s reconstruct what we’ve always known as our traditions and offer the world and even better version of ourselves. Let’s put the work into what we believe in and what has helped to shape our lives as we have grown up together. It will be hard - its supposed to be hard!! In this life, there are rarely things that do come easy! We have an obligation to show the world that we are better and stronger together. We can endure through this challenging season. We can achieve success together!
