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New Year's Resolutions for the DC Greek Community With 2001 over and 2002 finally here, many of us have thought of our New Year's Resolutions. We here at DCGreeks.com offer up a list of New Year’s Resolutions for the Greek Community in DC, in the hopes of bringing this community that much closer together and having a little bit of fun along the way. 1. Support every local Greek organization’s events… There are many Greek organizations in this town, from the various YALs, to student organizations like Kosmos and Digenis, to societies representing various regions of Greece and Cyprus (Laconian, Macedonian, Cretan, Pancyprian, Evrytanians, etc.), as well as the organizations under the AHEPA umbrella, and the important yet often forgotten Hellenic Society Prometheas and the American Hellenic Institute. (If we’ve left anyone out we apologize.) Each one of these organizations has the goal of promoting aspects of our Greek culture and heritage in its own way. These organizations go out of their way to organize events and sponsor programs and it should be our goal to try to support these events or programs, even if it’s simply by showing up. Most of these organizations don’t care if you’re a member or if you’re from their part of Greece or not. We realize that some of these events aren’t the most exciting or most “social” events out there in any given week or on any given night for that matter, but not every Greek event has to be a happy hour or a raging Greek Night. Take time for the Greek movies, the Greek plays, the speakers and lecturers that come to DC. Get involved with your church’s YAL, not just for the happy hours and other get-togethers, but for the volunteer work they do both for their churches and for the greater community. You get enough young Greek adults helping at a Greek festival, a car wash, a bake sale, or making sandwiches for the needy, it can be a pretty good time. (And with proper planning there’s nothing stopping you from going out and getting a drink afterwards, unless you’ve been working the gyro booth all day at a festival, then you may need to go home and take a shower first.) 2. Try going to something different this year… This is as a corollary to resolution #1, but it’s worth saying. If you’re the type of person who thinks that hanging out with Greeks can only be done at Greek Nights, then try going to a YAL event. On the other hand, if you’re the type of person who may identify with their Greek Orthodox heritage but not so much with the other aspects of their Greek culture, then go to a Greek Dance, the bouzoukia or a Greek Night. There’s a proper balance to being a Greek-American that we should all strive to meet, that includes both keeping up our reputations as a culture that knows how to party, and the more everyday aspects of our heritage as well. 3. Break out of your clique… Make a resolution to meet someone new this year. You see a lot of the same people every time you go out but have you ever taken the time to meet them? If you’re new in town and haven’t met that many Greek people yet, come on out to a Greek event or stop by a YAL meeting. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know anyone because generally Greeks are open to meeting new people in this community. It might not happen the first time you go out, it might not even be the second or third, but if you go out enough, people will notice you and more than likely come up and say hi. A great icebreaker is to say you saw their profile on DCGreeks.com or their picture in the Photos section. Getting a profile on DCGreeks.com is also a way to get people to feel comfortable with coming up and saying hi to you first. 4. Learn a new Greek dance… It’s never too late to learn how to Greek dance if you don’t know how. If you do know the basics, take the opportunity to learn one of those Greek dances that you see people doing that usually sends you off the dance floor. Watch how it’s done the first time, but the next time just jump right in. 5. Speak more Greek… A lot of us get to that certain age where we just find it easier to speak English all the time, even to our parents, who more often than not as skilled in the language as we are. Most of us are also now unable to make it to Greece every summer or every other summer like we did before the pressures of our school and work schedules kicked in. So as a result many of us see our Greek get rusty with bad subject-verb agreement and bad accents to match. So take some time to speak Greek when you can. 6. Stop worrying about what everyone else is thinking about you… There’s a great extreme in the DC Greek community where some people out there can live and interact inside this community without caring what people think about them, and then there are a lot of people out there who think that people are watching their every move. You know who these people are, the ones who will go out of their way to make sure they’re never even in the shadow of the spotlight, who use “shyness” as an excuse to keep them from doing anything that could potentially “embarrass” them, when in reality it’s all in their heads. We’re not advocating making an ass out of yourself, but it’s time to realize that for the most part, you’re among friends in the DC Greek community. 7. Stop thinking that being Greek means that you’re competing against other Greeks… This resolution certainly doesn’t apply to everyone, but it applies to just enough people out there in the DC Greek community that it can turn off a lot of innocent bystanders. Being Greek is not a popularity contest. Being Greek is not about being bitter because your friend is dating someone and you’re not. Being Greek is not about competing against your fellow organizations to see who will throw the better event on any given night. (More than one Greek event at the same time usually leads to worse Greek events on the whole.) Outsiders see the Greek community as a very tight-knit community where everyone supports everyone else, a so-called “Greek Mafia,” but often times that the furthest thing from what actually happens. Too often the pettiness and the jealousy in this community that ruins the fun for everyone, by adding a sometimes noticeable cloud of tension that can ruin an evening. It’s 2002 and about time that the city-state mentality of our ancient forefathers comes to an end, especially in a community as small as DC. 8. Wear more black… Honestly, isn’t this the year you should go out and buy more black clothing? If you’re not wearing all-black, all-the-time, isn’t there something seriously wrong with you?…
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