Characteristics of an alph.
"Gentlemen, you are my knights in shining armor." Such a comment makes your heart burn with pride. More pride than making it through Olympic night, more pride than experiencing the thrills of KGB night, more pride than singing about the great Phi Alphas amidst the jeers of rival sororities. Such a comment is truly an honor to hear.
The comment does not fall on deaf ears either, because we are truly like the squires of Medieval knights. The squires of those ancient days needed to know about their knights and the knighthood to be accepted as an equal. So like the squires, we are taught the rules and history of the sacred brotherhood we are trying to enter. Without this knowledge of the fraternity and its members, we could never carry on the traditions that have been passed on to us. In much simplier terms, if each pledge does not learn of the fraternity, the fraternity ceases to exist. For proof of this, we again look to the knights of the past and see that their downfall was due to the corruption of some of thier members and the subsequent exploitation of their knightly status on the surrounding people. If we are ever to become actives, such an exploitation of our status would lead us down a similiar path of the knights. We must learn from their mistakes and present the Phi Alpha image as it should be: a group of intellectual and virtuous men who enjoy coming together to share their experiences in order to enlighten their own.
Knowledge, however, is only one of several ideals we are taught. We are also taught the virtues of self discipline, respect for superiors, and personal pride in something much bigger than ourselves. We achieve these through the rigorous physical and mental tests given to us daily. Through these tests, we find many other benefits that surely the squires of the past discovered. These benefits include: finding within ourselves talents that we never knew existed, forming unbreakable bonds of friendship between each other, and learning that we share many of the same feelings and visions as our superiors.
It is true that to become a knight, a squire has to be sound of body and mind, but there are three distinguishing qualities to a squire that he must have in order to become a knight. We, as pledges, hold these traits near and dear to us.
The first is heart, which by definition: courage, determination, and enthusiasm. This is the sword of the pledges. Heart allows us to meet head on and triumph over the many challenges before us. Mr. Grandpa Kuehl is correct when he states, "Boys, you'll never make it alone." We have proven this time and again by helping a pledge brother when he is down. Just as in the lost days of chivalry, where many swords are better than one, hearts are also more effective when united.
The second trait that a squire must possess is perseverance. Perseverance is defined as: to strive to overcome despite difficulties or obstacles. This is the shield of pledges. Just as a sword and shield work in concert, so too do heart and perseverance. With perseverance, we may defend against the most unpleasant of times and let our hearts take over to strike down whatever challenge we face. Perseverance includes our mental and physical toughness, which greatly expands during rush, as we are frequently called on for, "gut checks." Perseverance, like heart, does not end during rush. It is a trait that will be called upon every day of our waking lives.
The third and final trait is desire. The definition of desire is: a wanting or longing for, or as a verb: to want or long for. This is the most effective weapon of a knight. This is not his sword, nor is it his shield, this is his mind. This is what drives a knight, what makes him want to be better than anyone else, what makes him whole. This is the knight's palpable hunger to do what is right, to serve his fraternity, and to share with his brothers. Perhaps desire is the one constituent of the human spirit that the knights of old forgot. They lost sight of who they are; they forgot their traditions and began the downward spiral to extinction. Without desire, there is no sword, no shield, no knighthood, not even a knight. Without desire...there is nothing.
Desire is not the only important tool of a pledge. All of the three traits are equally important, as in the synergy produced by them, i.e., they feed off of one another. Together the three of them make up the human spirit. We, the pledge class of 1996, believe that through rush, we have developed this human spirit to a new level. We have learned that our own abilities far outweigh our opinions of those abilities; we have learned that tradition is vital to the survival of this fraternity; we have learned that we posses the human spirit, and all that it includes: heart, perseverance, and desire. We believe that if the day comes when rush ends and we have all become members of the Phi Alpha fraternity, we will know pride and honor. Pride in a sacred brotherhood steeped in tradition, and the honor of being accepted into that brotherhood. But most importantly, we have learned that we can change this fraternity for the better and that we have a lot to offer the classes that follow us. So if the time comes to call us, we will rise to the challenge with our swords of heart, our shields of perseverance, and our minds of desire, to be your "knights in shining armor."
Written by the pledge class of Fall 1996
This is just a sample of what it takes to become an alph
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