www.triangle.org/index.php/The-Purpose-of-Triangle/Purpose-of-Triangle

"Purpose of Triangle." triangle.org. Triangle, n.d. Web. 17 June 2011.

I later found that this new since of belonging I had was a part of the fraternity’s mission statement that was composed by a group of over one-hundred Triangles. That statement reads: “The purpose of Triangle shall be to maintain a fraternity of engineers, architects and scientists.  It shall carry out its purpose by establishing chapters that develop balanced men who cultivate high moral character, foster lifelong friendships, and live their lives with integrity.” Fostering a lifelong friendship is something I had never really given much thought to. Up until high school I had spent at most three years in one place, but more commonly only one year. Moving so much isn’t the type of scenario that is conducive to fostering anything but a buddy or two for a while. But now I can see that could change through Triangle. Time passed after Founder’s day and I often caught myself thinking about what it means to be a lifelong friend. Surely you can’t stay close to someone forever. I’m only a year out of high school, but when I have chance encounters with some of the people I went to school with every day for four years, there is usually a surprised face, a quick interest into what either party has been doing, and then an awkward silence. Even though at one point in time we had nearly everything in the world to talk about, it seems like there is a great distance between the two of us. When I begin to worry about this happening between me and my friends in Triangle it nearly depresses me. But then I think about the study room, where so many of my good memories at the Triangle house have come from. I think of the Delta T in the middle of the table and, I remember what it means. The triangle, or more specifically the equilateral triangle, was chosen because it is the most structurally sound shape. No matter where you push on that triangle the force will be distributed equally and in the same way. I think about that and I hope that’s how my friendships among Triangles are. No matter how much time pushes up apart, our friendship will still be no less strained and complete balanced.