The Gamma Beta Epsilon Fraternity is inviting male medical students to its Grand Orientation entitled “Gamman Open House: Get to Know GBE” on November 13, 2009, Friday, 4:00 PM at Room 219, Medicine Building.

If you are planning to join a professional medical fraternity or would just like to entertain the option of joining one, this orientation might help enlighten you and help you decide. It is in the mind of most male UST medicine student the following questions:

a. Are medical fraternities still relevant in this time and age?

b. Is a medical fraternity for me and I for a medical fraternity?

c. If I am planning to join, why sould I choose GBE?

Get to know our fraternity more.  Get to know us more.  We might have the answers to your questions.

Light snacks will be served during the orientation.

Dinner and ‘Back to School’ Party to follow at the roof deck of RFS Building corner Dapitan and M. dela Fuente Streets, Sampaloc, Manila.

Everybody has his reasons in joining a fraternity or not. At first thought, I knew that a fraternity was not for me nor was I for a fraternity.

When I was a medical student two decades back, I looked at fraternties in the wrong way. I saw them from the not-so-selfless view of what I could get and how it would benefit me in my quest to be a doctor. I concentrated on what I would gain in joining such a group, if ever. If I would have to undergo such an uncertain (and what i heard, hard) initiation process, it should be for a good cause. It must be worth it.

But I was wrong. Dead wrong.

It was not until an elder Gamman talked to me and changed my perspective. He told me simply that a fraternity was not for anyone who was joining to gain something, but for someone who was willing to give and share. Something akin to medicine – for then, and until now, I believed that being a doctor is not the business of getting, but of giving – one’s talent, time and if needed, treasure.

Right there and then, I signified my intention and underwent the process. At that time, I was already a third year medical student. It did not mater then that it seemed late in a day for a third year med student to be joining a fraternity. I got some sneers, jeers. Some supported, others shook their heads and saw madness.

But I knew otherwise. Being a brod is not good only for the next three or four years of medicine and the several years of internship and residency. Being a brod is for life. And it will be a lifetime of giving and sharing to the brotherhood and brods, whether it be just a word of support, guidance, or plain and simple financial assistance.

Why GBE? Why not.

It was the group that I felt i belonged to. GBE was a silent, low profile group that just worked hard in its activities and in its brotherhood. No loud pronouncements nor high-impact projects. It just took pride in its brotherhood, silently. And it played hard, too. It was no coincidence that the happiest and brightest spots in my medical student life were the countless GBE outings and outreach programs spent in the far-flung provinces. And of course, the barbecue (read: inuman) sessions, too!

Medical student life including internship and residency is never easy. Aside from the grueling studies and study load, countless reports, projects and other requirements, you have other challenges and problems outside medicine. I have gone through several turbulent episodes during this time – relationship heartbreaks, the passing away of my father, certain failures along the way – but a brod will always be there not only to lend an ear but a shoulder to cry on. And I saw countless times when my Gamman brods went out of their way to help another, a unit of donated blood here, a ride home there, or free surgery to a relative elsewhere.

I believe that the bonds of brotherhood are ionic, one of the strongest there is. Much more durable than the hydrogen bonding of fleeting acquaintances, classmates even friendships. It is forever.

Now, more than two decades later, I am not only here with GBE but I happily serve as the fraternity’s faculty adviser. And funny, my fellow Gammans, cease to be only my colleagues, classmates and batchmates, and even students.

It is only through GBE that they have become my brothers as well!

A fraternity is not for everybody. And GBE is not for everybody, too.

But for some, it is. And joining GBE will be one of the greatest and best decisions one can make.

For me, it was. And will forever be…

HAPPY 39TH ANNIVERSARY GAMMA BETA EPSILON! HAIL GBE!