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Walk-Out Events February 28, 2005 It’s a hard thing to admit that we’ve walked out the past two Greek events five minutes after arriving. There are generally three reasons for going to a Greek event – to see the Greek people you know, to meet some new Greek people, or to expose yourself to some Greek culture. On any given night, at least one of these three draws is enough to keep you interested in and planted at a Greek event. On those rare nights when none or those factors are present, or only the cultural aspect is represented by a Greek band, some dancing, or maybe a movie or lecture, sadly this won’t be enough to keep a typical young adult interested. Often you can see one of these “walk-out” events coming a mile away. They’re usually the kind where you’re as or more likely to find people your parents’ age than your own age. They usually involve dinner even if you’re always coming in at the after dinner rate. They are usually the kinds of events that are advertised through 8 ½ X 11” sheets of paper and not glossy little postcards. Therefore when you arrive and see no one there within +/- 10 years of your age, you’re not surprised and can kick yourself appropriately. There may have been times when these events weren’t walk out events. Trapped in high school with your parents as your ride home springs to mind. There may be times later in your life when these events won’t be walk-out events, like when you’re bringing your own kids to them. But seriously, it’s not like these events have never had young adults at them. From year to year you’re going to find pockets of young adults at these things, but the problem is that these groups aren’t sustained. The organizers’ children and their parea tend to go to these things, but the organizers of these events tend to stay on in these roles past the time that their kids are young adults. You’ll see the next generation of young adults, in the form of packs of high school kids taking over the dance floor, but this obviously isn’t enough to keep a self-respecting young adult from downing the courtesy drink you had purchased seconds earlier. A friend of ours once explained to us the attraction of attending these walk-out events even when you know that they’re not going to be worth the gas and the one hour total driving time you spend. If you do meet someone new at one of these events, you can be assured that they aren’t going to be the typical person you would meet at a Greek Night or YAL event. It’s at events like these where you tend to meet that one person you wouldn’t meet anywhere else. These people tend to be fascinating just for the fact that they avoid the more mainstream Greek events. So skipping an event like this could leave one feeling as bad as having gone and discovered that it was worth skipping. It’s this mentality that will keep us going to events that no one would expect us to attend and not have us feeling bad for leaving five minutes later.
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