TBT - A Story from High School

I always feel like I don't have great stories.  Well, it's not that I don't have them.  It's that I don't remember them.  Which is one reason I keep the blog, and also why I'm trying to do better at writing in a journal.  And getting more sleep.

The point is, I have a hard time recalling specific experiences.  Which is why when I remembered this story recently, I wanted to record it here so that it wouldn't disappear again.

I've always tried to be good.  I'm not perfect - far from it - but for as long as I can remember I've had a desire to be good.  But until I remembered this story, I couldn't have told you any specific occasion when my actions made a significant impression on anybody, at least not that I know of.

I was not in the popular crowd in high school.  I got along with them, though, and moved among them in my classes and my (extensive) extra-curricular activities, so I considered them friends to an extent.  My older brother, though, was definitely in The In Crowd.  He was a Senior my Freshman year, so I was able to enjoy some of the benefits of his popularity, which was great.  His friends knew who I was and talked to me, and people of my own age, I'm sure, were a little nicer to me because I was Andy's little sister.

There was an illegal sorority at my high school, which was really just another way for the elite to be more exclusive, and party.  They tried to mimic college sororities with a super humiliating pledge experience culminating in a large group of people going to a field and throwing whatever they want at the pledges - rotten food was the most popular choice from what I heard.  It sounded awful.  But being part of the sorority meant certain acceptance by the popular crowd.  A ticket to social success.

I never considered I'd have a chance to join this group, and part of me knew I didn't really want to anyway.  I didn't want to pledge.  I didn't want to party.  I had friends of my own.  So what was the point?  But when I found out that my name had been suggested as a possible pledge, I had mixed emotions.  It would have been awesome to be included.... right?

Apparently, at the meeting where names were discussed, my name came up and someone who knew our family well - a good friend of my brother's - told the group that I wouldn't want to join.  End of discussion.  She knew our standards and she knew what the sorority was all about, and she didn't think I would be interested.  And of course she was right.  I didn't want to be associated with an illicit organization that existed for the purposes of being exclusive and getting drunk.

The interesting thing is, there was a pair of LDS sisters in my high school who I was very good friends with.  And they did pledge the sorority.  They claimed it would look good on their college applications because it was a "service organization."  I was floored when I found out.  Why would they want to be associated with this group?  I knew I preferred being excluded because of a good reputation than being included and risking a bad reputation.

I'm glad I had this experience as a teenager.  It helps me remember the importance of living what you believe.  You never know who's watching.