Before Recruitment Week officially began, and me being the overachiever I am, I did my reading. I read numerous articles on what to say, what to wear, and what to expect as if my GPA (or life, even) depended on it. I watched my Facebook feed as various friends of mine posted their own pictures of Bid Day. While my excitement and nervousness mounted, nothing could have truly prepared me for Rush Week.

To put it bluntly, I was overwhelmed. I might as well have stood before an impending flood, unable to move. I had already moved to an entirely new city, new state, and a school where I knew no one — and now here I was, putting myself out there. Stuck in the middle of the street and staring down a speeding approaching car.

Meet the Greeks. Philanthropy Day. Sisterhood Day. Preference Night. My feet blistered from walking across campus. I crashed the moment I made it back to my dorm, even if homework glared at me in the dark. I twisted my ankle the morning of Bid Day. My cheeks ached from smiling. I ached for home (both Mobile, Alabama and my future sorority).

If you are sitting on the opposite side of this screen and asking me Why?Why did you put yourself through this?, my answer is what I told each active sorority member: for the sisterhood. In high school, my friend group came and went like waves until senior year. That was the year I discovered my best friends, my future bridesmaids, and my ride-or-die… And then we all went our separate ways for college: Mississippi, Northern Alabama, Virginia, and so on. All of us blindly going forth into the unknown with nothing but teenage bravado.

At Southern Miss, I crossed my fingers and hoped and prayed to find that same network. That same genuine connection. That same support. That same unconditional love. That same ability to talk about something serious and then laugh till our cheeks hurt. By Preference Night, I knew I had found it — proved by my mix of grinning and crying in an expensive dress. My own El Dorado.

If you stumbled across this article and have Recruitment as an option, I implore you, please give it a chance. I won’t lie to you: it is so much work. You learn how to network, as well as how to maintain a conversation with a complete stranger for ten minutes and more (which was very daunting for an introvert like me). However, nothing good, nothing life-changing, has ever come easy. If you survive sorority recruitment, that itself is a badge of honor.

The most important thing, however, is that I found my home, and I hope you find yours.