By Lori Bredemeyer, Managing Editor

Pledging.

The word alone makes me want to take a month-long sabbatical from school each fall.

It’s not just the rainbow of colors worn each day, the lunchboxes, notebooks and bricks I see pledges carrying around, or the outlandish outfits they create to help cheer on their teams for intramural games. Those aren’t what really affect me because I just have to put up with looking at them.

The thing that bothers me the most about pledging is the complaining. Sure, I’m griping right now about what I dislike about pledging, but the whining I hear from pledges is excessive.

Most of the time it’s about time-they don’t have time to complete all their activities; they don’t have time to attend Chapel; they don’t have time to wash their clothes, or see their friends or go to work on a regular basis.

I always hear about how much they’re behind on homework, and tomorrow they have to finish 10 visits, help plan for grub, work on the Homecoming float and find time to memorize the names and biographical information of all the club members.

When I’m sitting in class listening to a group of guys moan about how tired they are because they had to run last night, or I’m walking behind a crowd of girls who are discussing how they haven’t talked to their best friend in a week, I always just want to interrupt them and express my true feelings: Get over it.

Pledges knew going into the process that it was going to be tough, and this is the course they chose. They saw how things worked last year, and they attended rushes and went to all the information meetings, and they shouldn’t be surprised about the commitment involved.

They should come to grips with the fact that they may not get to take a midafternoon nap for a few weeks or go on a date this month. The work and the visits and the exhaustion is all part of it, and in a couple of weeks, it will all be over.

So to pledges, I’d like to say instead of bellyaching all the time about how hard your life is, suck it up and make the next few weeks a positive experience. It will make campus a bit more pleasant for all of us.