On the Eve of Our 35th Year.

Each of us have had to cast away dreams which never matured. Perhaps it was our dream of becoming a baseball player, or an architect, or winning the Nobel Prize in physics. Perhaps it was the dream of marrying our fifth grade crush. Perhaps it was the dream of that big house with the Porsche in the driveway. Looking back upon our lives, we can see the path of dreams preceding us, some realized and some discarded, never taking on meaning.

While I was driving home from Initiation my mind returned me to that nightmarish display that the National Fraternity shows of chapters it has had to close, those chapters whose dreams were discarded. I remembered that as I looked at those composites, I couldn’t help but think of our own chapter and our dreams. I’m sure they had a bunch of “Good Guys” –indeed my best friend was Worthy Marshall of such a chapter – but in the end, these chapters just “didn’t get it,” and lost the meaning. I wonder how many of our own brothers at those chapters, as they laid in bed with the sun forever setting on their chapter, longed only for a second chance to set things right, yearning the “as” to never pass on the dawn of becoming “was.”

And so as the dawn of our 35th year rises upon us, may we realize that this is the very second chance so many of us had prayed for. Unlike those chapters who have passed before us, we still have a fighting chance to “get it.” We have a chance to show the world that being an ATO means something to us… that our experiences mean something to us…. And that our brothers mean something to us...

As the sun begins to rise on our 35th year, let us remind each other of that feeling we felt on the eve of our own initiation – the sense of awe, and wonder, of commitment and dedication. Let us remind each other of the “eternal and immutable principals” that are an intrinsic part of our identity, and that some dreams don’t have to die…

As the dawn breaks, and our 35th anniversary approaches, may we see with new vision, not those lost dreams which lie behind us, but those which stand before us. Let us take this year to rededicate ourselves to each other and our chapter, remembering the meaning of our motto, casting new light on our dreams. I can’t promise that you’ll ever have a Porsche in your driveway or that you’ll win a Nobel Prize, but I can promise you that this is our second chance, and that ATO is one dream worth realizing.

Love and Respect to All of My Brothers.

Andy