My Fraternity Family

One of my favourite academic traditions at St Andrews is the academic family. To briefly describe it: upperclassman students ‘adopt’ freshmen to be their sons and daughters. You can have a mother from one family and a father from another, but you can’t have two mothers and a father or two fathers and a mother or multiple mothers or fathers or families! Personally, I have one mum who is ‘married’ to a dad, and then I have a dad who is a part of my W&M St Andrews Programme. Academic families get to plan out your Raisin Sunday and Monday, which is a long tradition involving fun games all over town (a little drinking involved because the legal age is 18 here) all Sunday with your mum and then an evening with your dad, and it culminates in a crazy foam fight on the Southern Lawn of St Salvador’s Quad.

There are so many things I love about my family. Firstly, I should say I have a really really big family. I have about 6-11 other siblings from all over the world, and my mums and dads are absolutely amazing. My mum joined her family with her best friend’s which makes our family so huge, and her friends are our ‘aunties’ and ‘uncles’ giving us a ton of cousins as well. Every one of my siblings is hilarious and so full of fun; they’re full of jokes and mockings of my American accent and the amount of times I’ve cried because of how funny they are is countless. The reason this blog is titled ‘My Fraternity Family’ is because for Raisin, my mums planned a fraternity themed day based on their names. It honestly describes how close we all are; bonded over similar jokes and a sister/brotherhood of St Andrews beginners.

As a second year entering with all the freshers, it’s so daunting. You have to relive freshman year, but this time you know nothing of the university and your accent singles you out immediately. Having my family with me gave me some fast friends and even some best friends that I got to make incredible memories with. As cheesy as it is, they really are like a family. Not only have they taught me all things U.K. they’ve taught me how easy it is to bond with others just by sharing experiences.

This one goes out to you, Delta Beta Sigma Pi.