If we could just win out

"... But we were all refined, good girls from good families, and we realized somehow that we weren't going to college just for ourselves, but for all the girls who would follow after us - if we could just win out." -Bettie Locke

If you have read my last blog, you know I had recently attended my sorority’s (Kappa Alpha Theta) recent fall recruitment. The above quote was featured on a PowerPoint that was played for the girls under the theme “Picture Yourself Here,” where there was a scrapbook like presentation of the accomplishments, social events, etc. that the chapter (Zeta Upsilon) participated in that year. This quote gives me chills every time I read it, and I think that if more of us viewed the world and our actions like the founder of this sorority, we can build things to be better and better over time.

During the time Bettie Locke was in school, she and her friends (Hannah Fitch Shaw, Alice Allen Brant and Bettie Tipton Lindsey) struggled through a variety of situations. The reason the sorority was started was because fraternity men would let them wear their pins, (a symbol of membership) but not divulge what all of the symbology meant. This means that everything that defines a group means something to them. It is often said that ritual (the group’s customs and symbols) bind the group together. Bettie Locke felt that if she wasn’t “cool enough” to know their secrets, then she shouldn’t be wearing their symbols. 

They FOUGHT for and pioneered something that is still in use today, almost 150 years after the fact. It wasn’t a sure thing that they would be successful. These women were often ridiculed in school for their ideas. While thinking about this struggle, I think about other struggles that people are experiencing in the present day. How they are fighting for something that they believe in and that would make it easier for the generations to come. 

Sometimes I feel like we, as a whole, have lost some of that pioneering thinking and relentless execution. It could be because our forefathers (and mothers) fought so hard to make things TOO easy for us. This is obviously a generalization, and does not apply to everyone, but I still think that the majority of us are rather apathetic. Now, I’m not talking about starting a huge revolution, (unless we should) but I am talking about attempting to change things for the better or for our children and so on. 

Conforming to some things isn’t really a huge problem. Things like being mindful of others or being respectful. Conforming to other things can be a problem. I try to distinguish these two sets of things in understanding WHY we do these things. Can anyone tell me WHY we are on business casual dress? (Have no idea why it’s lasted this long)  Or why we work 5 day, 8 hour workdays? (Historically, linked to farming and manufacturing at least 100 years ago). Why do we have to be at work at all times to be seen as productive? (Because its easier to look busy than actually be busy) These types of things, while rocking the boat just a little, should be understood. If it just because “that’s how it has always been done,” that is conforming for conformity’s sake; out of convenience. 

Questioning things that make little to no sense is what pioneers and thought leaders do. But not ONLY questioning and identifying a need is enough. Coming up with a plan and actually changing that issue is the hard part. I think if we don’t fall into the apathetic boat, we fall into the “problem identifier” boat. Identifying problems is not displaying any sort of mental prowess or innovation. Changing them does.