Storytelling Week 7: The List of Things

Jimmy had grown up alongside his four best friends ever since he can remember. When they graduated from high school they all decided that they would all go to the University of Oklahoma together! Jimmy had herd from his older brother that he should join a fraternity to go to parties and meet new people, so he set out to convince his friends to join too. Jimmy was excitedly awaiting his move to a fraternity where he would meet many new lifelong friends. Soon after the start of their Freshman year Jimmy and all of his friends were initiated into a fraternity, but before they could become official members they had to undergo an initiation ceremony. The initiation ceremony had to be completed by all new members and included a lost of fifty strange things the friends had to do. The list, while light-hearted in nature, was meant to make the new initiates feel uncomfortable. One item on the list was to blow an airhorn in the great reading room. As a freshmen who did not know the rules about how to act on campus they were scared they would get into trouble.

One-by-one, the items on the list were knocked off. By the time they reached number thirty-four two of Jimmy’s friends had quit. They could not handle the stress of this initiation. At number forty-three another one of Jimmy’s friends had quit and decided that he did not want to cause anymore trouble to other people on campus. Now it was only Jimmy and his last friend left to complete the challenges. When they reached the end of the challenges Jimmy went back to the fraternity house and proclaim their victory. He was very pleased with himself, but the older fraternity members had a look of dismay.

Dear Frat Boys Article: The Odyssey Online

"You have not yet completed the challenge Jimmy..." one of the members said, "We need you to tell your other friend that he cannot join. We do not like him because he smells weird!"

I don’t understand Jimmy thought. He couldn’t say that to his friend. I would rather not join than alienate my friend!

With amazement the house members applauded... “you did it Jimmy! That was the final test. We wanted to see if you would leave a brother behind. You have proven yourself worth!”

That night Jimmy, happy as could be, discovered that the list of task was just a trick to see how far the initiates were willing to go for the house. All of Jimmy’s friends were at the frat party that night and they stayed friends for the rest of their lives!

THE END


Author’s Note: I am retelling the ending of the Mahabharata as Yudhisthira climbs the mountain to enter the gates of paradise. Yudhisthira explains that while coming up the mountain he brothers and wife fell into an abyss. Arjuna, the Twins and even Draupadi all gone. Now Yudhisthira and his dog are the only ones left and they wish to enter the gates of paradise. The voice that comes from the heavens tells Yudhisthira to leave his dog and he can enter paradise. Yudhisthira is outraged that he cannot bring this dog into paradise. A creature that had been through so much with him. Yudhisthira says he would rather stay in the freezing cold and die than go without him. The ultimate sacrifice. Finally Yudhisthira is told that the dog is a reincarnation of his father and he passed the test to enter into paradise, where he found his foes! He did not understand where his family was led. Eventually he was led to his family in ‘hell’ a horrible place. When I finished this part of the movie it made me think about what it is like to go through ‘hazing’ at a fraternity. I wanted my story to be whimsical and not too dragged down, so I made the ending a happy one compared to the sadder version presented by the Mahabharata video. I think fraternities often get a bad wrap and of course in some cases it may be true, but obviously it is not at all what some make it out to be and that is why I did not want to create a sad ending.