I think many would agree that formal recruitment was an extremely stressful experience. I struggled quite a bit throughout the process, and in retrospect, there are a few things I wish I would have known beforehand in order to make my recruitment process run a little more smoothly.
1) Keep hydrated and have some cough drops on-hand.
If you get any group of girls together, the room is bound to get loud, but bringing a group of 60+ girls in one room and having a bunch of separate conversations going on at once takes noise to a whole new level! The only way anyone is going to hear anything you say is if your face is inches from theirs and you are using an “outside voice.” After multiple days of having conversations in which I needed to literally scream in order to be heard, I got bronchitis, and “ain't nobody got time for that.” Having bronchitis on pref night is the definition of a struggle. It's really hard to have a serious conversation with someone when you sound like a chain smoker. I think having some water and cough drops on-hand would have helped the situation a little bit! Luckily, all of the girls I talked to were so understanding!
2) Don't wear white if you are prone to spilling.
On Philanthropy Day, I had all of my breaks consecutively and decided to spend my free time at 17th's dining hall which, in retrospect, was not the brightest of ideas considering my tendency to spill! They had pasta with red sauce, and I was wearing white pants. I'm guessing you can tell how the story ended. I spilled all over myself and had to walk all the way back to my dorm to change, which seemed like a really long walk at the time. Note to self: avoid white and light colors in general, because knowing you, you will manage to get dirty somehow.
3) Have a general idea of where you are going and how to get there.
After going back to my dorm to change my pants because of the pasta spill, I proceeded to get lost on my way back to the sororities. Because I have absolutely no sense of direction, I managed to walk around the Northrop Auditorium TWICE before having to call my Rho Alpha and get directions. I doubt this is a problem for normal people, but I just felt the need to include it.
4) Don't wear heels if you are accident-prone.
I'm sure if any of you who went through recruitment this past year recall the jog necessary to get from Chi Omega to the other sororities. It was a long distance to travel in such a short amount of time (eight blocks to be exact), and adding heels to the equation just made things way more difficult. In addition to having a tendency of spilling on myself, I also have a tendency of taking spills. I am one of the biggest klutzes known to mankind, so much so that my doctor advised my parents to put me in dance classes when I was two years old to improve my balance. I was a bit of a “late bloomer” (in my pediatrician's words), but that's a story for another day. Long story short, I forgot to pack a pair of flip flops despite the countless number of reminders we got from our Rho Alphas, and tripped and fell (while wearing wedges) on the way to Chi Omega. If falling in general wasn't embarrassing enough, I had to fall directly in front of a packed fraternity on University Avenue. It's essential that I have some flats on hand just incase I find myself going for a jog (although I'm not sure when that will ever happen again).
While formal recruitment was a bit shaky, taking part in it was one of the best choices I have made because it lead me to a community that welcomed me with open arms, flaws and all. Pi Beta Phi accepts me as the klutzy, awkward, and directionally-challenged person I am. As cheesy as it is, this exhausting, bronchitis-inducing experience led me to my family; and in retrospect, I can't imagine what my life would be like had I not decided to try formal recruitment.
