Chronicles of MLZ: Pyromaniacs

My sophomore year I had less urges to quit... This came from slowly integrating myself into sorority life. One of my greatest joys was getting a mind-blowing little. I finally felt like I had someone to relate to and she had the same love/hate relationship with the whole ‘Greek Life” affair.

During initiation week, each pledge class has a special night with the new members. The nights are not considered a part of our ritual or the same each year. It is up to the pledge classes to come up with an activity.

Sophomore year was obviously the first time my pledge class was on the “other side.” We weren’t really for sure what to do and the usual leaders were left with the task to figure it out. Of course, no hazing was a must... But I think we can all agree that mystery and surprise isn’t hazing-- so that is the vision we aimed for.

My pledge class use to have some huge power struggles. All pledge classes begin that way though, and normally is dissipates. About halfway through our freshman year, I think about five sisters rose to the top as our leaders. They were who we looked to for actual organizing and piecing together a schedule or plan of action.

For our Sophomore Night with the new members, our plan was to take them to a disclosed place and do an exercise that focused on Big/Little pairings. In our brilliance, we thought there should be a candle or two involved. (We love the use of candles in the sorority apparently!)

So we met with the new members at the house and paired up with our littles. We kept the attitude very serious and firm, trying to build a tone of reverence. The whole point of a week long initiation is to think about why we are in the sorority as initiated members and more importantly... for the new members to think about why they want to be initiated into our sorority. With this kind of tone in mind, we loaded up into cars (and trucks!) and headed towards the destination.

I was driving my truck and my fellow pledge class sister’s little kept asking if they were going to be hazed. But not in the scared, oh man... I am freaking out! way... It was in this excited and anxious voice. It was as if she was HOPING for hazing. Sorry to disappoint, but we just don’t do that. Our take on hazing is giving our little’s a study board for Big/Little Christmas and it doesn’t have backing on it yet... But no worries. We write a long, drawn out note on animal print stationary about how sorry we are and how we will fix our wrong within the month because we love you SOOOOOO much. <3 Big

After a few minutes of trying to convince her there would be no hazing, we had arrived. It was time to see the brilliant plan unfold.

I think it is only fair to let everyone in on MLZ’s planning tactics. We usually have the leaders figure out what we are going to do. THEN, we meet about 10-30 minutes before the event and they try to explain it to us before we actually do it. Sometimes it works.... Sometimes it is a disaster. But either way we pride ourselves on being last-minute and sketchy. Nature’s Law. Sketchy people can’t make intricate plans ahead of time. Makes total sense. MLZ for life.

So we had our little’s sit in a circle while the bigs stood behind them. (I won’t lie, my memory is a little hazy so they may have been standing, but either way they were in a circle.) I am pretty sure that everyone had a candle... And the actual event involved big’s and little’s having a one on one moment ending with the candles getting lit. Okay, so in theory and in actual practice this was a great night! But there had to of been some hitch or else I wouldn’t take time to blog it!

So we are in the circle and quite a few of us have our candles lit. I am kind of drifting off and looking around at all the new babies... Imagining what they might become in the next few years. And truth be told, I was also trying to remember their names! As I browse around the group, I see dangerous situation unfold.

A very pretty new member has put her candle too close to her hair, or the person above or beside her has become careless with theirs.... Nevertheless, I see her hair catch on fire. I panic. What do I say? Is this real life? No one will believe we weren’t hazing now... I mean we caught a pledge’s hair on fire!!!!

I do what any normal person would do... Clap my hands and step out of the circle. I think I yelled something totally unhelpful like, “HEY HEY HEY!!!!”

This got everyone’s attention and the pledge extinguished the fire before any true damage could be done. Thank our lucky stars she didn’t quit or decide she had been hazed... That could have been REAL bad!

The night continued with no other casualties and, personally, it was one of my favorite nights during any year’s initiation week.

Perfect example of MLZ and our plans. Sometimes they go up in smoke, but other times they light up the night. (Cheesy... I know. Live it. Love it.)

You just never know with sketchiest PC in sorority history: MLZ.