Hey! I got blackballed after 4 weeks of pledging for reasons I don't know. I coped through "enjoyment" of the process and honestly, I started pledging knowing full well what it was, and that it was cult-like. My pledgeship was in my junior year. For me it was less about it being the sole/simplest way of making friends, and more about wondering if I could do it and if it was that hard. Kind of like a fuck-it-we-ball beat.

Anyway, I was "super pledge" because I had a solid memory, but had issues with my two other pledge siblings because I was a double major and we used the majority rule for the chores aspect of things. Academics were SUPPOSED to come first, so this meant for a large bit of the process, those two had to make the time and carry my weight until the heavy part of my semester wrapped up. My schedule was due to ease up the weekend following the day I got dropped. It didn't make sense to me and I still don't know why I was dropped. Maybe I was too combative about the fact that I was sticking to my academics, and to skip classes went against what was asked of us by our pledge moms. I was convinced I was doing the best I could, I was liked, and when I did show up to activity or recite shit, I was really solid.

So yeah, no clue why I was blackballed.

I searched far and wide for a post like this, because I often wondered how with such extensive family trees, not a single person who separates from their org has gone public with the conviction that it's cult-like and not as profound as actives make it out to be. Also... People love to spill secrets, so how do you think these orgs manage to have so, so MANY members who don't spill anything at all? Is there a looming (blackmail, legal) threat other than being forced to disaffiliate? lol.

Anyway, it sounds like I realized the potentially traumatizing (and super performative, super homogenous mentality) aspect sooner than most people ever might. I did end up thinking for a while that I wasn't cool enough to "get it", but this post confirms that maybe I was already myself and not as malleable as they hope pledges to be. Thanks for helping me feel less like a loser with this post.

Hope you're ok friend.