Living in the Delta Phi Epsilon House

The first time I saw my favorite quote about greek life was in the DPhiE kitchen on my bid day. It was printed out and glued to a small piece of scrapbook paper taped to the wall – “These letters don’t make me better than you, they make me better than I used to be.” Two years later, that same piece of paper still hangs on the wall in the house that I have called home for the last year. As my time living in our house comes to an end, I realize what these words mean to me and to the group of women who have been my roommates for the past year.

The DPhiE house is a crazy place to live, don’t get me wrong. It can be loud, crowded, and messy. At times, each of us has wanted to pull our hair out for one reason or another – whether it be the mountain of dishes that piles up in the sink from time to time or Jeffrey, the squirrel who lives in the wall of 301 and whose favorite time to have a squirrel party is 7am on a Sunday. However, I can say confidently that none of us would trade this year of our lives to live anywhere else.

Living in the house means having 15 roommates. It means never having to watch TV, study, eat dinner, laugh, or cry alone. Your roommates aren’t just people to live with, they are your sisters – and you’d better get used to it, because you’re going to learn pretty much everything about all of them. I’ve learned that Laura can set a fire with a bag of popcorn, that Emilie is the one person in the English-speaking world who watches Psych, and that yes, Giuliana does eat pasta for pretty much every meal. More importantly though, I have made connections with 15 of my sisters that I would never have without the DPhiE house. I met my 5 best friends, spent about a million hours watching SVU, borrowed from 15 different closets, and learned to love each and every one of my roommates. My advice to the pis is to take advantage of every second of your time here. Don’t pass up this unique opportunity to bond with your sisters over everything from bad TV to getting ready for socials. Even if you don’t live in the house, come visit your sisters who do live here every chance you get. Not only do they have a bigger TV than you - they want you here, because this house is every DPhiE’s home.

The letters that are hung on the outside of this house and that we wear proudly make us better women. For me, DPhiE has given me a year of change and amazing experiences that have improved me both as a sister and a person. It may have come with a lot of dirty dishes and a cockroach or two, but it was worth every minute.
-Claire Arnos