Sample Magazine Article
Alaina Wezel
[email protected]
Word Count: 615
A Home is Not Just a Home When You Have Sorority Sisters
How a sorority girl handles the drastic life changes that come from living in a sorority house.
By: Alaina Wezel
I grew up in a normal suburban family four-bedroom, three-bathroom home. I had my own room and my own space, so when I originally applied to colleges I was skeptical of the living situations. For the first time I was going to have my space invaded by some other scared freshman that I did not know. Now being a junior I look back and miss that 16x 10 non-carpeted, cold, concrete walled oasis. When I walk into my college friend’s apartments or houses off campus, there will be a few roommates lounging on the couches or running around upstairs. A few dishes are placed in the sink because of the lack of a dishwasher and an abundance of laziness. Clothing and book bags are strewn across the mismatched couches.
Since my freshman year passed long ago, staying at my friends place is a nice change. I find jealously raging through my body as I walk through their homes. An open seat to claim on the couch and clean mugs in the cabinets? Hell yeah! These may seem like simple pleasures to some, but they are my daily hopes and dreams. Why? I do live in a normal six-bedroom, two-bathroom home with roommates, but get this…there are thirteen of us.
I am apart of a sorority at Rowan University, Delta Phi Epsilon, and after my sophomore year of college I decided to sacrifice more then just my privacy but also my sanity to live in a house with twelve of my sisters.
When many individuals picture a ‘sorority house’ they imagine what is portrayed in movies, a huge building with a marble staircase and white pillars protruding from a wrap around porch. At some universities that may be true, but my sorority house is a moldy, smelly, slanted, shit hole, to be blunt. Two people generally share one bedroom that is smaller than the average dorm room, which occasionally gives you the feeling that the walls are closing in on you. Privacy is nonexistent, not just because there are thirteen roommates running around all day, or fraternity men decide to raid the refrigerator and cook without cleaning leaving us with a months worth of dirty dishes, but it is also the general meeting place for many girls. All right, not just many, but 80.
But that is the beauty of it. The walls may have holes in them from reckless Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity boys and the carpet may always have a slight smell of stale beer from weekend gatherings, but it’s holds the hearts and souls of those 80 girls in my sorority.
Opening up my house to more then two-dozen people in a given day may seem like an invasion of my personal space and living quarters, but I embrace it. I am always pleasantly surprised by who greets me when I walk in the door and into the living room. It could be my sorority little sister coming for a visit, anyone of my 12 pledge sisters, or my roommate. Someone is always available to make me laugh, listen to me complain, or stop me from crying. Loneliness is hard to come by and friendships never in short supply. I wouldn’t have it any other way. And hey, if life gives you fraternity boys willing to cook and a carton of eggs, you might as well scramble them and share them with your sisters, even if you’re left with a dirty kitchen.
Alaina Wezel is a third year Writing Arts and Communication Studies dual major in the Communications Department at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ. Her interests include features, fashion, entertainment, reviews and music. Her work has appeared in Jersey Girls Magazine online.
[email protected]
Word Count: 615
A Home is Not Just a Home When You Have Sorority Sisters
How a sorority girl handles the drastic life changes that come from living in a sorority house.
By: Alaina Wezel
I grew up in a normal suburban family four-bedroom, three-bathroom home. I had my own room and my own space, so when I originally applied to colleges I was skeptical of the living situations. For the first time I was going to have my space invaded by some other scared freshman that I did not know. Now being a junior I look back and miss that 16x 10 non-carpeted, cold, concrete walled oasis. When I walk into my college friend’s apartments or houses off campus, there will be a few roommates lounging on the couches or running around upstairs. A few dishes are placed in the sink because of the lack of a dishwasher and an abundance of laziness. Clothing and book bags are strewn across the mismatched couches.
Since my freshman year passed long ago, staying at my friends place is a nice change. I find jealously raging through my body as I walk through their homes. An open seat to claim on the couch and clean mugs in the cabinets? Hell yeah! These may seem like simple pleasures to some, but they are my daily hopes and dreams. Why? I do live in a normal six-bedroom, two-bathroom home with roommates, but get this…there are thirteen of us.
I am apart of a sorority at Rowan University, Delta Phi Epsilon, and after my sophomore year of college I decided to sacrifice more then just my privacy but also my sanity to live in a house with twelve of my sisters.
When many individuals picture a ‘sorority house’ they imagine what is portrayed in movies, a huge building with a marble staircase and white pillars protruding from a wrap around porch. At some universities that may be true, but my sorority house is a moldy, smelly, slanted, shit hole, to be blunt. Two people generally share one bedroom that is smaller than the average dorm room, which occasionally gives you the feeling that the walls are closing in on you. Privacy is nonexistent, not just because there are thirteen roommates running around all day, or fraternity men decide to raid the refrigerator and cook without cleaning leaving us with a months worth of dirty dishes, but it is also the general meeting place for many girls. All right, not just many, but 80.
But that is the beauty of it. The walls may have holes in them from reckless Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity boys and the carpet may always have a slight smell of stale beer from weekend gatherings, but it’s holds the hearts and souls of those 80 girls in my sorority.
Opening up my house to more then two-dozen people in a given day may seem like an invasion of my personal space and living quarters, but I embrace it. I am always pleasantly surprised by who greets me when I walk in the door and into the living room. It could be my sorority little sister coming for a visit, anyone of my 12 pledge sisters, or my roommate. Someone is always available to make me laugh, listen to me complain, or stop me from crying. Loneliness is hard to come by and friendships never in short supply. I wouldn’t have it any other way. And hey, if life gives you fraternity boys willing to cook and a carton of eggs, you might as well scramble them and share them with your sisters, even if you’re left with a dirty kitchen.
Alaina Wezel is a third year Writing Arts and Communication Studies dual major in the Communications Department at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ. Her interests include features, fashion, entertainment, reviews and music. Her work has appeared in Jersey Girls Magazine online.