As the saying goes, a house is a home.
But I think sometimes we forget that. Millions of fraternity men across the U.S. and Canada eat, sleep, shower and hang out most every day of every week of the school year in their chapter houses. A fraternity house is not just a “frat house” that everybody parties in on the weekends; it’s a home for many.
I had a conversation with a couple of women last weekend who were a little less familiar with Fraternity and Sorority Life. They complained that they had gone into a “frat house” expecting a party on a Saturday night.
“It was so lame,” one of them told me. “There were only like, three guys there just sitting around playing video games.”
If you wanted to stay in on a Friday night, you would be doing something similar, wouldn’t you? Kicking back and relaxing in your own home? I think every house is entitled to a relaxing night, including fraternity houses.
Fraternity houses go under a huge perceptive transformation when they lend themselves as a venue for a party. I admittedly forget at frat parties, too, when there are couples everywhere grinding up on each other, that just that morning men were probably sitting in this very same living room eating a bowl of cereal.
Perhaps it’s because I lived in a fraternity house over the summer, but it really does bother me that fraternity houses have the stigma of just being party houses because they aren’t. I spent many hours studying in that house, cooking, and just relaxing on the couch watching TV.
So the next time you’re out and about on a Friday night, please don’t just walk up to any fraternity house door and expect a party. Chances are, there won’t be one.