I have had the pleasure over the last year and a half to live in one of the most bizarre, juvenile, awesome places I’ve ever encountered.
This place is a fraternity house, and living in it is the best time of my life.
If you have ever seen the movie “Animal House,” living in a frat house really isn’t too far off from what the film depicted. The house is always old (unless your alumni are flushed with cash), something is always broken and the faint smell of Natty or Keystone light always lingers in the chapter room.
It is, to a large degree, gross. Trash sprinkles the floor near overflowing trash cans, mustard stains the walls and there are always one to four toilets broken. I never step outside my room without something covering my feet.
Though we try our absolute best to make the house look clean, our efforts are ultimately futile. Yeah, we can get rid of the Burnett’s and potato chips that muddy our floors, but the previous years of debauchery have scarred our precious dwelling.
Alas, we live with it. It sucks, but we live with it.
Why?
Because there is nothing in this world that compares to living with 20 of your best bros. I’ll sacrifice a little cleanliness to have the opportunity for constant excitement from my brothers.
There is always something to do, and I can always find someone playing Guitar Hero or Mario Kart in our chapter room when I come home from class. People are always eating together. A brother is probably bingeing the same show as you on Netflix, so you can sit down and watch with him.
There is always someone to experience the weekend with, whether you want someone to go to the bar with you on a Saturday night or someone sober for you to hang out with if you need a night to rest your liver.
Maybe the best part is having the opportunity to kick back on a Wednesday night after a hard day of class and tests, and crack open a cold beer with one or two of your best buds. In my life, I’ve found there’s nothing that brings a guy closer to another guy than sharing a beer and talking.
And isn’t that why we go greek? To create a lasting bond with like-minded people, who share and live the same values as you? It’s pretty amazing to live and connect with so many awesome and diverse people.
This is my last semester in the house, and it’s obviously bittersweet. I’m excited for cleanliness and a night or two without music blasting, but I’m going to miss the brotherhood.
I’m going to miss the nights where 10 p.m. turns into 2 a.m. because I got caught up laughing and talking with my brothers. I’m going to miss being able to walk down the hall to my best friends’ rooms to play FIFA or drink a beer or reminisce about the weekend that was.
I’m going to miss walking down Fredonia every day, remembering why I joined my house. It’s the best decision I ever made, and I’ll never regret living in the best damn frat house in the world.
