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Language: en

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I do think I know someone
who's in a secret society.

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I have my suspicions, but
I'm going to say officially,

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I do not.

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When they go disappearing
at odd hours of the night,

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during the day sometimes,
then you can tell.

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There are some underground
things going on.

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One of the things
that fascinates

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everyone about secret societies
is the mystery of them.

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I think that all the
class presidents and vice

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presidents have some
sort of involvement

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in a secret society.

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Perhaps I'm in a secret
society and it's so secret

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that I don't even know it.

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Right now I think there are
about 14 secret societies

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at the University of Virginia.

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It's hard to tell,
because there are

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three new ones created every
year and three that go away.

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I know that there's three
main secret societies here

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on grounds, or three big ones.

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The big three, like the Seven
Society, the Zs, the Imps.

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The Seven Society is
probably the most secret

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of all societies.

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You do not find out who is a
Seven until they pass away.

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The church bell will
ring seven times.

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There'll be a wreath of black
roses in the shape of a 7

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at their grave.

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In order to communicate
with the Seven Society,

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the tradition has always
been that you leave a letter

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at the base of the
Thomas Jefferson

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statue in the rotunda.

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So if people want to
ever reach out to them,

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ask for help with different
initiatives, they can go

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and they can leave
the letters there.

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A lot of times they've donated
to different organizations

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and different events.

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But once again, it's anonymous,
so you don't know a whole lot

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about them.

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The oldest secret society
by its very symbol, the Z,

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explains who they are
and what they want.

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The Z in Greek actually
stands for "he lives."

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So the whole nature
of the group is

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to preserve the thinking and
ideas of Thomas Jefferson.

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There are stories of when
students are in libraries,

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people will talk
about food, and then

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randomly pizzas will show up.

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They open it up and just
see a giant Z spelled out

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in pepperonis.

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The Imps, they're known as
being the most rambunctious

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of the secret societies.

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During finals, you
might see people

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in morphsuits running through
the libraries with big boom

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boxes, trying to get
people to get up and dance.

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They do a lot of things around
grounds for students when

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there's high times of stress.

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It's another way to be, I guess,
immersed in the community.

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I like them because they
give an air of mystery

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to the university.

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They really are there to promote
the well-being of the students

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and to point out the
people around here who

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are making positive impacts.

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Small acts of kindness that
generally amount to something

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a lot greater, because
they really come in when

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the university needs them most.