Why?

I want to talk about the series finale of Greek.  This is totally different from the other day when I was lame and posted tv news.  This is more a “philosophical oration on the meaning of purpose and existence” and such…

I had a dream the other day; it was really really cheesy.  I mean, it made me happy, but it was awesomely cheesy.

Shawn and I were watching a spring football game on the field and we ended up talking to the coach about supporting football as alumni.  And I said something to the effect of “You have to stand behind where you came from, because if you don’t, then you don’t stand for yourself.”  Admittedly, it was a dream, so it may have made more or less sense than that…  But that’s close enough for the discussion I’m trying to have.

I think that more than where you’re going or what you’re doing, where you came from is the most important thing.  There’s a lot of cheesy sayings that emphasize that like “You are what you eat” or “The past influences the future.”  (The second one’s not as cheesy as the first, though.)  The quote in my dream was probably some horrible mangled conglomerate of “If you don’t stand for something, then you won’t stand for anything” and “You have to look back to go forward.”

So, they named the series finale of Greek “Legacy,” which is an appropriate title.  A legacy is something you leave behind when you go forward.  Everyone wants to leave a legacy.  It shows that you made your mark on something and that you were able to mean something.

But just as easily, the episode could have been called “Why?”  The “why” is almost more important than the “what.”  In some ways, it’s almost better to leave a legacy in people’s hearts rather than anything physical like a building or a monument.  I think there are two important speeches in the episode.  They are as follows:

In a speech to the Kappa Taus, Rusty says “So Lasker grew into a bitter nerd.   So what.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  He’s a relic of the eighties.  It’s his generation who tells us the real world sucks, because they make it sucky.  But he was right about one thing.  This was just a house.  Kappa Tau isn’t one person.  Kappa Tau isn’t wood.  Kappa Tau isn’t dry wall.  It isn’t moldy wall paper.  It isn’t beer soaked carpets.  It’s living for the fun of life and that’s what bonds us.  As long as we remember that, Kappa Tau lives on…  Past houses.  Past college.”

And, while giving his oration for his philosophy final, Cappie continues “Well, the first thing you asked us at the beginning of the semester was ‘Why are we here?’  Well, I thought about that…  a lot.  We all have a purpose and our purpose is to figure out our purposes.  That’s what college is.  So, why college?  Why CRU?  The truth is, I chose CRU because a friend of mine from camp was going here and I chose to rush a fraternity and made new friends.  And college has been everything I could have ever imagined it to be.  So I kept thinking, why would I ever want to leave this place?  But, then I realized that there’s so much left to learn and experience and look forward to.  And now I’m graduating… hopefully…  And heading out into the real world with the love of my life who was my purpose, so, today I’m here to graduate.  And tomorrow?  Well, that’s hard to say because I have no idea where I’ll be.”

A lot of this blog is me discussing my life as I get from point A, where I am now, to point B, where I want to be.  But I also spend half my time talking about where I’ve been.  There’s a tag line on the main page of my blog.  It says “Navigating the world as a Post-Graduate. Someone help… No, but really, someone help…”  But why is being a Post-Graduate so scary?  Because you don’t have anywhere to go?  Because you don’t feel like you are where you should be?

Because where you were meant everything to you?

But it’s like Rusty said, you aren’t what you are because of a physical house, it’s the memories, people, and events that make you who you are.  And those are always yours to keep.

There’s a song my chapter sings at Preference.  I won’t post all the words here, but the part that has always meant the most to me is “If these old-fashioned window panes were eyes, I guess they would have seen it all, each little tear, and sigh, and foot fall.  And every dream that we came to seek or follow after…”

I have no idea where I’ll be tomorrow either…  Or the next day…  Or maybe even a year from now.  But, in the end, I know I’ll be okay because I came from some place that I really stand behind.

I never talk much about why I joined a sorority.  I posted my letter that I wrote for Preference earlier in the year, but that’s not quite right either.  I had one dream when I came to college, to grow and change into someone I could be proud of and respect.  And I did that.  That was my dream.  And I talk now about where I want to be and all my goals, but I think I really gained the confidence to dream and plan and everything because I was able to accomplish my biggest goal.

I think so many people lose sight of who they are because they don’t put much stake into who they’ve been and what they were.  We are who we are because of those things.  And it’s important to remember that.

Anyway, go and check out the full episode on the ABC Family website.  You don’t really have to be Greek to appreciate it because we all come from somewhere that is just as important to us, even if it isn’t a storied international community of organizations.  The size of our community isn’t what’s important.  It’s the people in that community.  It’s who we were to that community.  It’s what that community meant to us.

Why?  There’s a lot of reasons why, but I always think this reason is best:  Don’t cry because it’s over.  Smile because it happened.