In the featured image: Gary (left), Mason (middle), and Mitch (right).
| Written by Mason Hopkins |
*GASP* Gary, we should start a frat!
I swear that joke lasted longer than our time in the fraternity did. It didn’t, of course. The creation and growth of the Mu Tau colony and then chapter of Phi Mu Delta defined my final two years of my undergraduate study at Rutgers–Camden. But it feels like those weeks of laughing off the idea of Greek Life were an infinity—like I was so sure of myself and I was so sure that my college experience had already been shaped and decided. I had friends, a passion for my coursework, jobs on campus, and membership in multiple clubs. I thought I had done it—I’d figured out college and given myself a meaningful experience. But, Rutgers–Camden, this loving and wonderful place, had more in store for me. Sometimes, it feels like I’ve had twenty lives on this campus. And it feels like each of those have taken up a lifetime.
I still have the text that a fellow Orientation Leader sent, urging me to consider this new fraternity coming to campus. It would be a fraternity, she assured, that held values comparable to my own. Throughout summer orientations, that friend, an impressively involved member of her sorority, continued her Phi Mu Delta campaign that now included my close friend Gary. He was also Orientation Leading with us, but I soon realized that he was the kind of person that I would be following and relying on for probably the rest of my life. He would come to be the friend that actually knew what he was doing. At least, he made it seem like he knew what he was doing, compared to my own cluelessness. I guess we joked the fraternity into existence, though, because later that academic year, we won Greek Chapter of the Year with the highest ever semester GPA in Phi Mu Delta history. (Weird flex, I know, but I also won Greek Man of the Year. No big deal.)
Gary and I quickly realized that our band of two needed a third member. This addition came in the form of another brother in our chapter, Mitch (whose job I may or may not have stolen—it’s unclear). He was another like me—goofy, involved, passionate, and in desperate need of Gary’s calm pragmatism. We were inseparable during our last two years of college. But that was a lifetime ago, when we were different people, and times change.
In the weeks since my Master’s graduation this past May, I’ve been thinking about how Rutgers–Camden allowed me to have many vastly different identities on campus. Throughout my time here, I’ve been so many people—I was an Honors College student, a commuter, a Boothie*, an English major, an Orientation Leader, a student employee in the Office of New Student Programs, a teaching assistant, President of the Campus Activities Board, a Founding Member of Phi Mu Delta, a Women’s and Gender Studies minor, a graduate student, an instructor of English Composition, and now the Communications Associate in Enrollment Management. I’m still on my Rutgers–Camden journey, still growing and changing, learning how I can give back and add value to this campus that has given me purpose, meaning, and passion.
Rutgers–Camden accepted all of me—the best and worst parts—and told me that I would always have a home here. But more importantly, it gave me a space to create my own home and write my own narrative. I could be who I was and be who I wanted to be. The support from leaders, faculty, and staff on campus always helped me grow toward whatever my goals were. And, even though we’re different people now and times certainly have changed, there was nothing more special than standing next to Gary as we were two of Mitch’s groomsmen on his wedding day just a month ago—the three of us closer than ever.
*An employee at the Rutgers–Camden IMPACT Booth.