Fraternity Travels

This past weekend I did something that many fraternity members will never do, I attended a leadership conference sponsored by the Alpha Sigma Phi national headquarters. Let me start by saying that if you ever get a chance to attend a leadership conference of any type, you should do it. I learned so much about myself and got so many ideas about what I can brink to my fraternity and to McDaniel. A lot of times we lose focus, getting caught up in our social lives, putting importance on things that truthfully just won’t matter once we graduate, but this conference helped me realize that we can leave a legacy for ourselves if we live everyday being the best men and women that we can be.

Three of my brothers and I flew out to Indianapolis last Friday. It was an early flight. I arrived at BWI at 6am so I would be sure not to miss my flight. The Alpha Sig national headquarters paid for the flight and for the hotel and dinners for three nights. It was a great deal, plus I love flying. We arrived at the hotel, the luxurious Crowne Plaza, only 40 minutes or so before we were supposed to meet down in the lobby so my brothers and I had to quickly get up to our room and change (most of us had traveled in sweats in the name of comfort). Once in the lobby we were quickly filled into a large room with almost 250 brothers from colleges and universities across the country.

There was something cool about being in a room with so many guys who had committed themselves to similar values to your own and been through similar experiences all to find themselves in Indianapolis on this particular weekend. It was nice in making conversation since you already had one major thing in common with every guy in the room. Over the course of the next few days, I met all kinds of guys of different backgrounds and from different states, and together we helped define and strengthen each other’s commitments to our core values as brothers and men.

I know that you’re probably thinking about how cheesy all of this sounds, but it really did make a difference in how I view the world. I’m not saying that if you’re a guy you should come to McDaniel and pledge Alpha Sig, I mean you should come check us out cause we’re awesome, but what I am saying is that you should take advantage of opportunities like these as they arise in college, and they will. Lessons learned: you never stop growing, you never stop learning, there’s always something you can change to make yourself, and the brothers from Murray State know how to have a good time.