This past weekend, I followed through with the crazy decision I made back in December to go through formal recruitment in the hopes of joining a sorority.

I had never seen myself as a “sorority girl”- I wasn’t blonde, had never been a cheerleader, and had gotten only one manicure in my 18 years on this planet.

Yet, I wanted to see if there was anything there for girls that didn’t feel like sorority girls, yet still sought sisterhood.

Formal recruitment was one long weekend spent in a local hotel surrounded by hundreds of other girls who had similar hopes of joining a chapter. Day one involved an eight-hour flurry of getting introduced to all ten chapters and was absolutely overwhelming, to say the least. In each chapter, each of the potential new members talked to probably two or three current chapter women, and I know I spoke to enough girls that I barely remember their names.

The next day was a combination of excitement and devastation as girls were only asked back to a maximum of 8, but could be asked back to only a few. The parties got longer, and it felt like the day got longer and longer as well. Day three was equally as devastating if not more so, as girls were welcomed in with our schedule for the day- which included a maximum of five parties. By this point, at least half of the sororities on campus didn’t like you, which wasn’t necessarily true, but felt just as full of rejection. Pref day, or day four, was nerve-wracking, to say the least. Hour long conversations seemed like a daunting amount of time to keep up a conversation with one person, and this day was make it or break it for receiving a bid to end up joining.

However, it all came to fruition at bid night. We all sat in small groups, sitting on envelopes, surrounded by girls from the ten chapters. Simultaneously, hundreds of girls opened their bid envelopes and ran to meet the chapters they had been invited to join. The feeling of relief at finally being through recruitment, combined with the happiness of receiving a bid to my top choice made the exhausting, emotional long weekend finally worth it. I was welcomed home to an amazing chapter of enthusiastic, driven, passionate women, and I couldn’t be happier I made the crazy decision to go through recruitment and join a sorority.

And yes it’s cliche, but there is always a home for you to come home to, even if you’re not a “sorority girl.”