Here recently I've noticed that I'm beginning to phase out of that childish part of life, and have started slipping away into adulthood. It just hit me a few days ago that I am now a junior in college. A junior. That means that two years of my college career have flown by. So I decided to look back at them, and see what I thought about them, and what I could learn from the mistakes I've made and those things I got right.

In pretty much every positive memory of college that I have, my fraternity is in it someway. Hands down this was one of the best decisions that I've ever made, and if you're in college or going to college I encourage you to rush. It doesn't matter which one either, as long as you pick one that fits you best. Here's the back story to why I rushed in the first place...

It was freshmen year first semester, and I moved into my new dorm room. I had a roommate and two suite mates, but we moved all of our beds into one room and used the other as a living room, so I call them all my roommates. Regardless, we all had girlfriends back home which was convenient because we each kinda looked after each other. We all became real close, especially David and I. We started working out each day pretty much, and I actually lost the Freshmen 15 (which I have since gained, and am now working on losing it again).

Anyway, many of the men in David's family have been in fraternities so he was very excited to rush. I, however, am the first one who will graduate from college in my family (for the most part, I think I have some uncles or aunts whom I don't really know that went to college). On top of that, the only thing I knew about the fraternity was from movies or TV, so I had no intention of joining. David convinced me to at least rush, because it wasn't like I was actually joining one and he wanted someone he knew to go through with him. So I rushed.

For this next part it might help if I explain how the rush process works. First you go through for about a week and meet all the guys in the fraternity. Then they pick a list of guys who they want and give them a bid. When you sign the bid from a fraternity, that means you are officially pledging that fraternity. Once you sign the bid, you can no longer pledge another fraternity for an entire year.

During the rush week, I immediately clicked with the guys in my fraternity, everyone I talked to was down to earth. David, however, clicked with another one. On the day we received our bids, he decided to rush the other one, though I told him he should pledge with me. A few days later, for reasons I will not go into, David dropped his fraternity. After talking with me and several of our other brothers, he was able to pledge us. He had never singed his bid card, so he never was an actual pledge. Today, I am proud to call him my brother. And he will actually be my roommate next year.

I think that something everyone hopes for is a decent relationship. Unfortunately for me, this doesn't really happen that often. If you're one of those people who are in a decent relationship, then flaunt it elsewhere. Now when I looked back over the past years, I realized that I had actually done better relationship wise than I had expected. I don't like to go into too much detail, but I dated three girls this last year. More than my entire high school years. But of course, that means that they ended three times as well.

Now I would just like to say that women are peculiar. They say that they want a man who will listen to her, who will make her laugh, and who isn't an asshole. Now I fill all three of these requirements, but no surprise that I as well as numerous other nice guys out there am single. This is because women are liars, and what they really want is that asshole who will treat them like crap, then leave them for the next thing that comes along. When this happens, they need the nice guy to cry to.

And to be honest, I don't really care right now. Okay, of course I care, everyone cares. And it would be great to have a nice girl around. But really, I don't have time or money for it. Women are too expensive. Oh hush ladies, you are and you know it. But men don't mind really. It makes us feel like we're in control, which is what we need sometimes. What I am sick of, though, are the girls who are teases. Really? If you're a girl and are reading this, please do me a favor and don't tease a guy.

Recently I was flirting with this lovely young lady, who was clearly flirting back. For about two weeks or so this went on and I was feeling rather confident and was going to ask her out to dinner, when we were hanging out one day and she drops the "Hey you know how I've been flirting with you? Yeah, well I just want to be friends" card. Now this happens a lot, my being the just-a-friend or like-a-brother, and normally I don't let it get to me. For some reason though, this did get to me. I haven't told her how I feel though, and I probably won't. It's been a while since that happened and I'm pretty much over it. But please ladies, spare any fellow you've been rubbing elbows with if you're not interested.

And the thing that should probably come before all of this, school. Ah school. Now I'm not one to brag, but high school for me was a breeze. I do not attribute this to my being intelligent, but rather my high school being a little behind. Now I was in all of the advanced and AP classes, and I even was accepted to the International Baccalaureate program, but in all honestly I did nothing in high school. And it was awesome.

Not only was the schoolwork rather easy, but I was a complete suck up which helped a lot. On top of that, I was on the football team which meant I had an unlimited Get Out of Jail Free card. Then came college, and I learned that I was not a juggernaut of the classroom, but rather I was just your Average Joe. This worked out well for the first year or so, but then I was handed responsibilities.

President of the German club for two consecutive years, officer of the Technology Student Association for two years, captain of the JV football team... yeah I was involved in things, but like everything else in high school the responsibilities for organizations here was on a different level. This past year I was an RA, which means that anytime anyone in Wells has a question about anything, I am the person they asked. Or if there was a party and I had to bust it, I was the one who was called because I was the only guy. Or if they left their key after coming back from downtown at 3:00AM, it was my door they knocked on. This would have been fine if I had not been the Historian for my fraternity as well. All of the nonsense I had to do for this position can be found in my other notes I'm sure. But let's just say I had a full plate.

The reason we study history, as they say, is so we do not repeat the mistakes of the past. So what have I learned? I have learned that joining the fraternity is by far the best and most fun (grammar?) decision that I have ever made. I have learned that no matter how many times my sleeping schedule has been disrupted by my residents, a giant yellow thank you card at the end of the year and a handful of great memories makes it all worth it. I have learned that I need to buckle down more when it comes to my schoolwork, it's not freshmen year anymore. And secondly I learned that I have found a new love for writing, even if nobody reads my blog.

Speaking of, if you have managed to read my blog, would you please let me know? Leave a comment about what you like and what you don't. I won't take it offensively, unless you're just a complete ass about it.

-Beast