Fish Out Of Water Essay, Research Paper
The lights were out as I sat in my yellow flower pattern chair with old books to prop it up. Nick was at the computer playing games online and all I could see was the dim glow of the computer screen. My mind was racing to discover exactly what had gone on in the preceding two hours.What happened at the meeting tonight? Who was on our side? I didn t even know who my enemies were. The executive board had planned it all out perfectly, we were going to discuss, as a whole, what needed to be changed and implemented to our rules so that we could function properly and have goals for our House. Who knew the Chapter would react in such a way? I needed to go for a walk to clear my head. As I light up my cigarette and left the room, Nick quickly turned from his computer to me. Where are you going? I have to go for a walk. Alright, don t forget your keys. Quickly, I left and scurried down the stairs to the second floor so as not to be stopped by anyone. I decided to stop into Jeff s room. Jeff lived with John on the second floor in a large party room. As I entered the room I noticed that Jeff and John were there along with Bob and Paul. Jeff, John and Paul were juniors and Bob was a sophomore. They all stared at me as I walked in, the lights were dim and they had all started drinking. A multitude of Keystone Light cans were strewn across the room as a reminder of the festivities of the night before. This disgusting nature of life that they had was in direct opposition to my lifestyle. Get the fuck out! Bob screamed, pointing at me. Come here and sit down, Jeff voiced sternly motioning me to a chair.I did not know what was going on but the people around me were not looking happy and their aggression was beating down my back. As I sat, I took a long drag from my cigarette, and leaned back waiting for what was to come. Jeff said, What are you trying to accomplish with these rules about our grades? You guys don t have the right to tell us what to do and you can t punish us! Paul yelled at me. You can t just change everything at once, you need to work in stages, John said, as he was clearly the most levelheaded among the group. We have to do this all right now because we have a problem and we have rules, we just don t follow them. This is all stuff that we are already supposed to abide by. Doesn t it make sense that we use this rewording of them to reintroduce them to the members? I spoke calmly. No, we have been in the House longer than you and we don t want these rules, they were never followed in the past and we had great times and good grades. Jeff responded. They have not been followed recently and they need to be followed so that the members of this House with a GPA lower than a 2.25 cannot live in the Chapter House. This will keep them away so they can work on their grades and also to keep their influence away from the others. I rebutted. That was probably the worst thing I could have said because I realized that three of the four people surrounding me had very poor grades. They were all being extremely hostile to me and to the executive board, which I am a part. They did not want to change their ways. They were each on their second beer since I had arrived. Look at it this way, our Fraternity, on a National level, has rules and regulations about grades, we are not here to just party and neglect grades, we learned this during pledgeship I had started to say.
So what, I am here to have a good time and enjoy my time in college. Nobody cares what National s thinks, Jeff said while lighting his cigarette and grabbing another Keystone from the case. As I was say, to become an initiated member, you have to have a 2.25 GPA, there is no reason that once you are and active it should drop. The rules should still apply. Plus, the University requires a 2.0 to live in the House, all we are truing to do is enforce the rules and make it a 2.25 to live in the House since we, as actives, should not force pledges to do something that we don t follow! I said, completing my thought. No, you have no idea what is going on! We have not done this and there is no good reason we should, Bob yelled at me. I was frustrated by this yelling match that I was caught it. Everyone was around me and I was in the minority. This cause me to tense up, I light another cigarette and began strategize about how to handle this situation with causing it to blow up even more than it had. We used to be the top Fraternity on campus with grades and now we are second to last! I desperately said, exhaling my smoke. They had no concept of academics and their importance. We don t see any reason for this, and you are a stupid piece of shit for starting these problems, Jeff said as he glared at me. Jeff was the least likely to be yelling at me, yet he was starting to raise his voice and feed off of the anger produced by the rest of them. I am going to stop you guys from pushing this through, Jeff let out, as he sat back into his couch. I began to get up and started to say, Look, now that there are responsible people in charge, the rules WILL be followed, there is nothing you can do about it! I proceeded to leave the room and as I left I heard a jumble of threats and curses as a beer can came flying out of the room into the hallway. I let the door slam and headed upstairs. I was so frustrated, that I had been singled out and attacked, that I went back upstairs. As I entered my room, I grabbed a bottle of water and light another cigarette. I took a few large drags and sat down into my chair. My roommate was on the large green and blue-stripped couch doing his homework. He looked up at me as I sat down. How was your walk? What s wrong? he inquired. After explaining the fiasco on the second floor, I proceeded to say, I don t understand their logic at all. They make no sense, yet they think I am the one who makes no sense. They re irrational, what do you expect? They are the problem and they will find out that we intend to follow the rules and they will be enforced, he said putting aside his books. Yes, but they said they would stop us. I don t know how much support we have anymore. I was caught off guard because I would never have expected Bob or Jeff to corner me or attack me. I don t know where my friendships lie with them. What am I supposed to do? It was Paul and John influencing them, don t worry about it, we have enough support to pass this and enforce the rules. Stay away from them for awhile and everyone will cool off, Nick said in a fatherly tone. It just bothers me that they would act like that. I don t know why, I have never felt like this around them before, I softly remarked. Most of them will be gone next semester if they don t shape up. You can t worry about everything. Relax, go to sleep and forget about it until tomorrow, advised Nick, and that is exactly what I did.