Over the past 5 days, a little under 2,000 girls have been going through the sorority recruitment process here at Indiana University.
Our school has 23 chapters on campus, and the way recruitment works, in a nutshell, is that there are 4 rounds. The first round, we must all visit every single chapter for 30 minutes, then we visit our top 16 for 45 minutes, then our top 9 for 55 minutes and lastly, our top 3 for 75 minutes. Next week we will be ranking our top 3 and then we wait two days to receive our bids. These are some of the thoughts that I’m sure all the girls here and girls at any other school who have ever gone through the long process can surely relate to:
1. "Did I ask her that already?"
After talking to about 100 girls in a day, all of the conversations start to blur together. You kind of start to forget if you have already asked the girl you’re talking to where she’s from or if you’re about to awkwardly make her repeat herself again.
2. "I hope my hair looks okay"
For some reason, we all spend so much time preparing for rush. We go to the mall seven times to get new outfits for every day and do our hair and makeup perfectly every morning. Yes, it is important to look put together, but I’m pretty sure not one girl paid attention to my outfit for a second. We stress so much for no reason.
3. "Why did I just say that?"
Word vomit is a thing. I am a huge dork, and even though I’m not trying to put on a front for these girls, there were definitely a few times where I thought to myself there are some things I should probably only say to my best friends who understand my dorkiness instead of a girl I just met 2 minutes ago.
4. "I can't feel my fingers or toes"
That’s the beauty of having sorority recruitment second semester in the Midwest. We have the pleasure of rushing during the dead of winter in -15 degrees wind-chill! Standing outside for twenty minutes in between each house is definitely not the easiest task to endure if you want to keep feeling in your body.
5. "I feel like I'm speed dating"
After going through a few rounds of recruitment and going to a few different houses, it soon starts to feel like speed dating. The process cannot truly be compared to any other experience but that would have to be the closest simile.
6. "Who needs the gym when I can just go through rush?!"
Thank goodness I was an athlete in high school otherwise I never would have been able to run from house to house in 20 minutes which would normally be a 45-minute walk. At least I got my exercise in for the week!
7. "How many times can I repeat what my name, major, and hometown is?"
The process also starts to become so repetitive. It is difficult to make a good first impression the first round when the conversations all sound the same and consists of such surface level topics.
8. "What kind of question is that?"
Some girls, however, try to come up with creative questions to start a conversation. Instead, some of the questions we have gotten were just flat out weird and hard to answer. Over the past five days I have heard “What’s your favorite toothpaste?”, “If you had a pet monkey what would you name it?”, and “If you were a part of a flower what part would you be?” Not quite sure how those questions help the girls learn about us, but whatever works for them I guess.
9. "Is this a conversation or a job interview?"
It becomes very clear that not everybody is a conversationalist. Some people are not the best at keeping a conversation going and elaborating and sometimes it can feel a lot like just being asked a bunch of questions rather than making a real connection
10. "This is not a 'house' this is a mansion"
Getting some of the house tours was quite the experience. Some of the sorority houses should really be featured on “MTV Cribs”.
11. "This has been the longest day of my life. How much longer until lunch?"
12 hours of flirting with girls and trying to keep high energy can be exhausting and the days can really drag, especially when we would have to visit 11 houses in one day.
12. "Today is going by so fast!"
But at the same time, the process has been flying by. Time goes by so fast when we are in the actual houses talking to the girls. It’s hard to believe we’re half way through the long process.
13. "I can't wait to be a part of this sisterhood"
While sorority recruitment can be physically and emotionally draining at some points, it’s more exciting than anything. Being in all of the houses and seeing the sisters interact with each other is so fun and it makes me so excited to belong to a sisterhood like that and have such a close group of friends to call my family.