College Life from this perspective

Freshman year again was quite an experience.  It was 1989 and George Bush Sr. was President.  Little did we know but in a year or so my Guard unit faced the very real possibility of being activated and my good friends in the Guard and I would be going to war.  We had a very good mission and would be on nice safe Air Force bases somewhere in the middle east.
Thankfully that never happened but it was a real possibility for a while.  When U.S. Forces intervened on the behalf of Kuwait to remove Iraq from their country I had no idea what it was all about.  I also had no idea where Kuwait was geographically.
My parents not coming to my college my freshman year at all really should not surprise anyone.  Dad has always been kind of rough when it comes to relating to me and my family.  My sister too.  He really wants to forget about my mom who died when I was 9 and my sister was 11.  He has remarried and actually is doing ok although I think he is a bit miserable overall.  He gets really frustrated really quickly and is really a pain in the ass to get along with at times.  But I must admit that I am too. 

Back to freshman year - it really was a fun time in life.  I rushed a fraternity known as Sigma Nu.  My grandfather Dees was a Sigma Nu in the exact same house 60 years earlier and that was very helpful in me getting a bid there.  I happily accepted the bid and started pledge duties.  These duties included on certain nights having to spend the night at the house and wake up upper classmen at 5:00 in the morning.  That was rough.
After I received my bid to join Sigma Nu they had a big party for us.  We were assigned - my pledge class and me - a keg of beer to drink.  We obliged and I proceeded to get pretty hammered.  As a result of this over indulging I started dancing and flirting with girls on the dance floor at this party and at one point I smacked a gal on the butt whom I did not know.  Turned out she was a brother in the fraternities fiancee.  When he found out I did this, in my drunken state, he and a couple of other brothers took me out in back of the house and he punched me in the face.  I started to bleed from the lip and was extremely upset.  I thought for sure I was dead and that these guys were going to kick me out of the house.  I did not apologize or really ever talk to this guy again but I do know that this did not start out my pledge-ship on a good note.  Actually a few weeks later I was asked to leave the house.  Mostly this seemed to be as a result of this party and my actions but I also was struggling with all of the duties and my grades etc.  So overall I deserved what I got.  That is a really rough experience for any freshman to go through and as a national guardsman and military guy I was embarrassed, hurt, challenged and sad all at the same time.  I really wanted to be a Sigma Nu.  I really wanted to be in a fraternity and I felt like they did not want me because of my actions and that was a really tough pill to swallow.  I thought for sure this would all go away and I would be welcomed back in.