The Piano Knows Something I Don't Know

Why doesn't anyone want to join the Greek Friendship Society?

"I think so," I said. I sat down on the piano bench and began to lose myself in the music, glad that I had my friends with me for Halloween.

By the time I returned to campus, the festivities were over. Patrick was fast asleep, with his devil horns resting next to his bed. I had actually enjoyed my Halloween more than I usually did, thanks to Spencer and Brendon. Even dressing up was kind of fun that year.

The next day, Gerard showed up in Flack Hall again. Patrick and I were hanging out in the common room, and just as Patrick was telling me about some lab that he had done in biology class, Gerard spontaneously appeared and asked, "Have either of you two made up your mind about the Greek Friendship Society yet?"

"I don't know," Patrick said. "Can I have more time to think?"

"You could always come to another one of our parties," Gerard suggested. "That might help you make up your mind."

"I'm not so sure about that," Patrick said.

"Come on," Gerard insisted. "It will be fun. Ryan, you could come too."

"I'm not joining Greek Friendship Society, Gerard," I said. I knew that some of my thoughts were true, and others weren't, but the thought that I didn't have any reason to join Gerard's society was almost certainly correct.

"Let me know if you change your mind, Ryan," Gerard said.

"I will," I said.

"Patrick, will you please come to our party on Saturday?" Gerard asked.

Patrick thought about it for a few minutes and then said, "I guess so."

"Great," Gerard said. "I'll see you then."

It was just my luck that I ended up having other plans that Saturday. Shortly after I refused Gerard's offer to join Delta Omicron Gamma, I heard from a boy in my philosophy class named Eduardo that Epsilon Kappa Iota was throwing a party that same day. "They're a really neat fraternity," Eduardo explained. "A lot of philosophy students are in it."

Even though I wasn't sure that joining a fraternity (or Greek Friendship Society, for that matter) at all was a good idea, I couldn't resist the idea of having intellectual discussions all day with a group of my fellow classmates. If I was going to join a fraternity, it would be Epsilon Kappa Iota.

That day, I showed up in the Epsilon Kappa Iota house, which was right next to the Delta Omicron Gamma house. The two houses looked quite similar, but while the Greek Friendship Society house was swarming with Frank's four-legged friends, there were no animals in sight at the Epsilon Kappa Iota house.

At first, I didn't know what to do. There were plenty of fraternity men wandering around the house, drinking and dancing to the generic pop music playing in the background. I recognized a few of them from my Introduction to Philosophy class, but most of the fraternity members were unfamiliar. If I had gone to the Greek Friendship Society party, I could have at least talked to Patrick, Frank, and Gerard, and perhaps Laura if she bothered to show up.

After a few minutes of wandering around the house, a tall, bespectacled man with short, blond hair came up to me. "Hello there," he said. "You must be one of the freshmen. What's your name?"

"Ryan," I answered.

"Nice to meet you, Ryan," the man said. "I'm Ben. So Ryan, what's your life story?"

I wasn't sure how to respond to that. So much had happened in my life up to that point, yet there was nothing important or mind-blowing in my past. Why do we all go through life without ever doing anything meaningful?