Your phone lights up, and instead of it being a text from the hot guy you sit next to in Poli Sci, it’s one of your sisters low key freaking out. She asks everyone if they’ve heard the same rumor she has: There’s a date dash. Excitement and fear both strike immediately because you love date events, but a heads up is typically essential.
I come from a place where Greek life isn't as big, and I have no real family or friend ties to sororities/fraternities. The only time I'd heard of a date dash was on a hand-me-down t-shirt from Bid Day that had those words on it. Obviously, my expectations about date dash greatly differed from reality, and yours probably will too. Here are a few of them:
EXPECTATION: You’ll get plenty of notice before the actual date dash event. Every other event has the binding sign-up sheets, meetings, and emails weeks in advance, so this shouldn’t be any different.
REALITY: It’s called a dash for a reason. Sometimes it’s a few of days notice; for my first dash, it was a few hours. The rush and dash is what makes it fun and different from a normal swap or formal.
EXPECTATION: Finding a date is impossible. For the ladies in relationships, they can call up their boy and immediately start planning their coordinating outfits. For the other single ladies like me, date dash initially strikes like Valentine’s Day coming early aka we’ll self-loathe while watching all of the cute couples.
REALITY: Boys love going to sorority events and are jumping at any chance to go. It’s okay to be set-up with a date or ask that guy you’ve secretly (or not so secretly) had your eyes on for a while now. Chances are, if they’re free and they’re down, especially if it means they get a t-shirt.
EXPECTATION: The costume isn’t that big of a deal. Sure there’s a theme, but no one can go all out in this short amount of time. So you’ll see what you can easily pull together.
REALITY: We’re sorority girls and we can accomplish anything, especially a kick-ass costume in less than a few hours. Please, we all already have most of the basic crafting supplies in our rooms; it’s basically an unwritten sorority girl requirement. If not, every college town has a Walmart/Target down the street for a quick in-and-out. For my Tacky Christmas Date Dash, I stood nervously still as my friend hot glued tinsel onto the outfit as I was wearing it. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do for the sake of the costume. If there’s a theme then, it’s guaranteed people are going all out.
EXPECTATION: It’ll be a good night, just like every other sorority event. You can dance the night away with sisters and cute boys, wear fun outfits, be happy you went Greek and look forward to the next event.
REALITY: It’ll be a good night, just like every other sorority event. You can dance the night away with sisters and cute boys, wear fun outfits, be happy you went Greek and look forward to the next event.
