My Journey to Greece

By Nick Calvo

The Bill Tragos Quest to Greece was a journey that seemed like folklore to me when I first heard of it. I happened to come across information about it freshman year when I was a pledge preparing for the CA Gamma initiation. At the time, the only thing on my mind was to finally be able to call myself a brother; never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I could be one of the few fortunate people to be able to participate on this great adventure. As time went by my involvement in the house grew larger and a year later I somehow found myself sitting at the Marriott Hotel convention room at Carlsonʼs Leadership Academy listening to Quest to Greece alumni describe how the trip changed their lives.
A few months later I decided to take an even bigger step into the world of Sigma Phi Epsilon and attended the Ruck Leadership Institute. I never really thought of myself as a leader before, I just figured it would be a great way to learn some new skills to help me be a more effective member of my chapter. I was lucky enough to meet Bill Tragos on my first day in Virginia and learned more about the Quest to Greece experience.

When I got home from Virginia I began to think of the impact SigEp has had on my life and my entire college experience. Carlsonʼs gave me insight on how to be effective at running a certain position, Ruck gave me the courage and tools to run an entire chapter, but what neither of them really touched upon was WHY I was even devoting so much time and energy to the fraternity to begin with? Why did I feel so compelled to spend a few hours every Sunday for the past 2 years of my life sitting through Exec meeting arguing about who is assigned to clean the bathrooms each week instead of going to the party at the senior house overlooking the ocean and watching Sunday Night Football?Ruck and Carlsonʼs did a great job teaching me administrative techniques to running an organization, but they never answered why I was always so involved with the fraternity I loved.It was this key and fundamental question that sparked my interest in The Quest to Greece and fueled me through my journey.

When that email came around to me last November notifying me of the deadline to turn in the Tragos Quest to Greece application, I knew it was an opportunity for me to finally figure out these questions and see what being a part of Sigma Phi Epsilon is truly about.So I went and asked our President at the time, Cameron Mazdyasni, how I should go about figuring out a way of being chosen to participate in The Quest. He advised me the best way is to go straight to the top and ask Bill Tragos himself for a letter of recommendation for it. Cameronʼs immense assistance and mentorship soon paid off as I found myself standing on stage receiving the invitation for The Quest to Greece in front of 400 other SigEps at Carlsonʼs in February. Now that I had reached the step of being accepted to it, what was I to expect next? What are the other Questors going to be like? What should I do to prepare for the adventure? What were we going to do and learn while we are there?

When I met everyone involved with The Quest in the OʼHare international terminal I couldnʼt have imagined a more diverse group of people to go on it with. There were both Balanced Man Program and Traditional chapters represented. There were people from colleges all over the country with incredibly different backgrounds. As the journey went on and I got to know everyone closer I realized that through all the separateness and diversity I was in the perfect place. Everyone else there felt the same passion towards those incredible three Greek letters as I did and appreciated the significance it has played in each one of our lives. The professors and mentors on the trip couldnʼt have provided any better guidance for us as well. Each of them are so accomplished and had so many life experiences to share with us, it was captivating to get caught up in conversation with everyone of them.

While there we discussed the Socratic method of philosophy, learned about ancient Greek drama, reviewed the mysteries of Eleusis, competed at the Ancient Olympic Stadium and studied the ancient Greek culture. Through this we were able to find parallels to our fraternity experience today and see where the fraternity world was founded upon.

During the trip we would have required readings relevant to the sites we would see each day. The reading would vary from excerpts from The Odyssey to Socratesʼ Defense while standing trial to Periclesʼ famous speech after the first year of the Peloponnesian War. At the end of each day we would discuss the significance and the underlying impact these stories had on ancient Greek culture and also how they were relevant to the world today. Aside from the readings we would hold an open discussion with the core of it being held around fraternity issues and how we can improve our lives by applying Sigma Phi Epsilonʼs 3 cardinal principles: Virtue, Diligence and Brotherly Love.

The entire experience was surreal. It was a dream come true being able to physically travel through a place that has provided the world with so much knowledge and rich history. To many, the ancient Greeks Gods, Heroes and the stories about them may only be myths but since The Quest, they have come alive and offer a link to the incredibly prosperous culture of The Balanced Man Ideal. By being in the presence of the most accomplished SigEps in the nation and listening and learning to the different stories everyone told I was finally able to see why I was attracted to the brick house so much.