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Relationships are complicated to begin with. Add Greek life to the mix and you are sure to get a recipe for disaster. Or are you?

There is not a doubt that dating in Greek life can be a challenge, but so can dating in general. Each situation is different, and there are many perspectives as to whether or not dating and being Greek is truly worth it.

Personally, I am gladly a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta Women’s Fraternity, and my boyfriend and I are both transfer juniors at WSU. This fall, I decided to go through recruitment and pledge a sorority, as he decided Greek life wasn’t for him.

Being in Greek life and dating someone who is not part of a fraternity has it pros and cons. I can honestly say the one thing I appreciate the most is that significant others don’t need to be a part of a Greek house in order to be our date to a Greek event. I can still take my independent boyfriend on date dashes whenever I chose.

With the many upsides come some disadvantages. One difficulty of being in the Greek system and dating someone who is unaffiliated is that they don’t always understand how time consuming sorority and fraternity life can actually be.

Dating when you and your significant other are both in the Greek system can be a lot simpler. When both parties are part of a house, there is more of an understanding.

“We both get to be involved in WSU in the same way, which teaches us to have similar goals and values,” Jake Melton, member of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, said.

On the other hand, there’s another side to dating in Greek: being single. Staying single in college gives you more time for yourself and your friends.

“I think that college isn’t the best place to have a microscope on another person or on yourself, because we haven’t all fully matured yet and are likely to blow things out of proportion,” Madison Ransford, member of Alpha Gamma Delta, said. “Being single in the Greek system gives you a chance to focus more on yourself.”

At the end of the day, all that matters is that you are happy and making the most of whichever situation you are in. No relationship is perfect; every one of them has its flaws. You get out what you put into it. And when things get rough, because they do, thankfully I have a hundreds of sisters to turn to for that.

For me, the bottom line is that just because he isn’t in a part of a fraternity doesn’t mean that he is any less fun to date, but it does mean Greek affiliation is irrelevant to the success of a relationship. Love is love, and you date a person because of who they are, not the letters that they do or do not wear.