rlk, rlk, r-l-k!

to all of you who are of the red and blue persuasion, happy first knight! to those who have no idea what i;m talking about, allow me to explain. first knight is the introductory evening for new members of rlk, geneseo’s finest social service organization. disclaimer coming up: all remarks made henceforth concerning rlk are the opinions and experiences of the author and not  meant to be an official description or categorization of rlk in anyway.

now that that’s out of the way, yes, in technical terms, rlk is a social service organization, and not a sorority. and of course, to separate ourselves from the sororities of geneseo, we would quickly and emphatically agree. “we do hours and hours of service every semester, we give back to the community, we help people!” and yes, all of that is very true. but friends, rlk is a pretty much a sorority, albeit one that is very focused on service. whatever you want to call it, rlk was one of the best things that ever happened to me. and in honor of the day, this newly desert sun-burned author is going to take you lucky readers on a nice little journey down memory lane.

andiepants joined rlk in the fall of 2004, so tonight marks the sixth anniversary of my involvement with rlk. six years! oy. stay tuned for a lengthy diatribe in which I bemoan how old i seem to be getting. anyway, fall 04 was a great semester for our little protagonist and i have the lovely ladies of rlk to thank for a large majority of that. rlk stands apart from many other similar organizations because of the lack of hazing, which i totally dug. we did not pledge, we went to “orientation”, which consisted of sleepovers, parties, bake-offs, etc etc etc. sign me up! and we got to wear these cute little tshirts, that said our class semester and year (fall 04, if you haven’t figured that out yet) on them, i mean i thought they were cute, but most of my class hated them.

fall 04 became known as the drop out class. we were one of the only classes in rlk history to have three members leave the class. still we were a tight bunch and had a great time. its crazy to me that six years after we were welcomed into the organization, fall 04’s are sprinkled across the country. we now reside in new york, colorado, new mexico (that would be me), virgina, massachutses, etc. i could not have wanted to begin my rlk experience with any other group of girls, so hey, fall 04 fockers, wherever you all are, i miss and love you guys.

the fun had with rlk does not end with your orientation class. oh no, friends. rlk was and continues to be one of the largest organizations on campus. we took a new class every semester, which usually consisted of between 16-20 ladies, so we were pretty big. speaking of bigs, that is another thing rlk has in common with sororities, we assign “bigs” to each new member. they are supposed to help guide you through the orientation process and welcome you into the organization. so a big shout out to my big, jj, who recently got married (congrats again!).

i had a great time during fall 04 and consequently spring 05 largely because of a group of about 8 seniors and juniors who took me under their wing in a serious way. my first (and only) fake id was supplied to me by one of these women, and they taught me all kinds of things, such as how to pound a beer, which frats were cool, which bars i could successfully get into with my not-so-awesome fake id, etc etc. a huge and infinite thank you to one of these fine ladies, miss molly, who decided to sneak me into the bar one night in april 2005 and introduced me to her phikap friend, mike. i’ll be marrying him soon. so, molls, who just got a teaching job in the south (congrats!) thank you again, and we’ll see you at the wedding.

right around the same time i was introduced to my future husband ,i was also introduced to two women who would end up becoming two of my closest friends and who i continue to be very close with to this day (i was not lying when i said rlk was one of the best things that ever happened to me). b and a, you guys are amazing and i miss you every day.

no description of my years of rlk would be complete without a mention of my little. was i lucky in that department! to all who don’t know her, my little kicks ass. like serious ass. and suffice to say that we had a damn good time together in genny. drunken funtimes aside, she is one of the sweetest, caring, compassionate, intelligent and lovely ladies that i have ever met. little k,  good luck in vermont at your new job!

another cool thing about rlk is that depending on who becomes your big, you are then involved in a “family line”, which keeps growning and growing. at last count, i now have five littles in my family line, so if any of you are reading this, hola!

so i mentioned earlier in my post that rlk was very heavily focused on the service aspect of our organization… yeah…. except for me.. and a moderately sized group of my cohorts (b, i’m lookin right at you). here’s the thing, everybody, i did not look at rlk and think “finally! a group that does service! a group that wakes up at 7am on saturdays to help the elderly! where can I sign up?” um no. i looked at this organization and saw new friendships, a way to make the campus smaller, parties four to five nights a week, a way to meet cute frat boys and sports players, a fun house to live in and get really awesome at beer pong and things of that nature. so even though service was “required”, i just didn’t do it. and, if you’re wondering,  i don’t feel guilty about it. at all. nope. not a bit. and yes, I got judged and talked about for it, and man, can ladies be venomous sometimes, but I continue to be at peace with it. And though I honestly admire and respect those members who religiously did their service requirements with a smile on their faces and not a trace of complaint on their breath, friends, that just wasn’t happenin for me.

and I’ll tell you why. because when andiepants was in rlk, she was 18-21 years old. holy crap, everyone, that is quite possibly the most fun time in your life that you will ever have. at least it was for me. living in a little bubble called geneseo that was filled with books and bars, absolutely no responsibility (none!) except to rouse yourself around 11am and go to class, having someone to go to a bar or party with nearly every night. it was the best! and I’ll be damned if I left a party early so I could make sure I got enough sleep to go help out at the save the dolphins rally the next morning. No way. I mean, don’t misunderstand. I did the big things. The stuff where everyone in the organization was expected to go, but apart from that, nada.

These days, i look back at my college years and know that I had the best time I possibly could of, took advantage of every opportunity to have fun I saw, and still got grades good enough to get me into grad school. rock on, a-pants. . and I also find it a bit ironic that I shunned all types of service because I could not fit it into my truly packed party schedule, and now, I am a full time social worker. So you see, it all works out in the end.

To close, some advice to the newest little ones of rlk, the fall 2010 class:  go have fun! You will never get this time back in your life. Embrace it, take chances, stay out late, make memories. And trust that you’ll have a lifetime to do the “responsible” things, like become a social worker and spend your Friday night doing laundry (yep, that just happened to me last night, kiddos, no joke).  Enjoy your life, little dudes of fall ’10 and make sure that when you’re 24 and living in the new mexico (hah, kidding), you can look back at your time in rlk and say, that was f*cking awesome and I wouldn’t change a thing.

as always,

be thankful,

andie.