Letter from the Field
Fledgling Charge Consultant Eric Kelley, Sigma Triton ’04 (Penn State) reflects on what Theta Delta Chi did for him and how he is returning Minerva’s favors.
 If you think it’s hard to say goodbye to college after four years, trying saying goodbye after six. This semester is the first time I have not been in State College for the first day of classes and the first football game since the fall of 2000. I haven’t even begun to accept the sadness I will feel when I hear about all the fun my Charge brothers will be having as they build the Homecoming float. Or the mid-afternoon gatherings in the hallways, the random discussions that kept us awake until four in the morning, formals, road-trips, grilling out on our third floor sundeck.
Luckily I made the most of my time as an undergraduate. After I complete my thesis this semester, I will graduate with four Bachelor’s degrees and one Master’s degree. I served as House President, Pledge Educator, and four terms as Recruitment Chairmen. I was an Inter-fraternity Council Executive Board Member and runner-up for Mr. Fraternity 2005. Not too shabby for a wayward freshman who was thinking about dropping out of school until the brothers of the fraternity he had decided to join gave him a reason to stick around (and made him attend classes).
I still think back to when my big brother in the Fraternity asked me to promise him I would graduate when I am working on my thesis as it will be the last thing I need to do to fulfill that six year old promise. I’m sure it is apparent how important Theta Delta Chi has become to me, just as I’m sure it is important to all of you. The decision to join became a pivotal moment in my life and this was one of the biggest reasons I decided to dedicate a couple years of my life to serving the Old Lady as a Charge Consultant.
I left Boston the third week in August for a three month road trip. While about six weeks will be spent working to re-colonize Epsilon Triton at Arizona State, I will work with about eight different charges before returning home. Former Charge Consultant and Xi Deuteron alumnus Ryan Aggargaard and I made the 3000 miles meander from Boston to Tempe making numerous stops along the way. Of note, we stopped by Bowling Green University to spend an evening with former Charge Consultant and Grand Lodge Graduate Secretary Adam McCready (Chi Deuteron) as well as to stop by Wrigley Field. Eventually after about four days of driving we arrived in Tempe where Lambda Deuteron’s Jacob Dababneh graciously opened his home to us.
My first week in Tempe was spent acclimating myself with Arizona State University as well as getting to know some of the Epsilon Triton alumni such as Geoff Gildner, Mike Normann, and Jeff Marsh. On August 29th, I flew from Phoenix to Madison, Wisconsin to help the Sigma Deuteron brothers plan how to make their Charge the strongest it could be. After two weeks of successful recruitment events, thoughtful action planning and the sort of impromptu Charge improvement conversation that could only occur between brothers, I found myself on my last day there watching the Wisconsin-Western Illinois game with Brian Larsen, Aaron Munson, and Alex Zaslasky realizing that I felt like I was at home with my Sigma Triton brothers even though I was five states away with the Sigma Deuts.
It’s an amazing feeling that I’ve had in these last few weeks. In a country that used to seem endless to a lifetime east-coaster, things have felt a little bit smaller, and the brotherhood a little bit closer. The more guys I meet, the easier is it to see what brings us all together each year at convention, that intangible quality that makes us each Theta Delts.
In recruiting the new Epsilon Triton brethren, I find myself exciting to find them. There are Theta Delts everywhere, those individuals who reflect our values, who enrich our lives, and who benefit our organizations; we just need to find them. I have so much faith that Theta Delta Chi will continue its upward ascension as one of North America’s greatest fraternities because everyday I meet a new Theta Delt who reminds me that brotherhood knows no bounds. Penn State and my memories there will always be special to me, but now more than ever I realize that the saying, “Not four years, for life” truly embodies what it means to be part of our fraternity.
I will be traveling shortly to visit some of our southern Charges and look forward to seeing some of the guys I met at Convention in August: Mu Triton’s Erik Swensen, Nu Triton’s Emerson Blais and John Haug, Rho Triton’s Emerson Blais and Micah Hinson, Nu’s Brian Cohn, Jason Tucker-Schwartz, and Trevor Seret, Chi Deuteron’s Mike Tundermann and Akeem Samuels, and Epsilon’s Andrew Welch, Andrew Hale, and Kyle West. And then finally, the opportunity to return to Penn State and the Sigma Tritons for the first time as an alumnus and meet those new brothers that have recently found Theta Delta Chi like I once did.
Today, a young college man will feel lost in the world, tomorrow he will be a leader in Theta Delta Chi. Even though my Charge will be functioning and recruiting without me in its immediate ranks for the first time in six years, I know that when I find myself back in State College in late October, I will also find myself face to face with the newest generation of Theta Delts. Even though I will not know them personally at first, I will know them as brothers, as though I had known them all my life. Moreover, I know that each of them will be better because they have found the Old Lady and that she will be better because she has found them.
When I first left Penn State in July to move to Boston, I thought that I was leaving my brothers behind, but rather my brotherhood has grown, and once again, that has made all the difference in my life.
You can contact Brother Kelley at ekelley@tdx.org.
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