After watching every girl I know (and 1,300 PNMs) eating, sleeping, and breathing recruitment for two weeks straight, I took a moment to think back to life before being Greek (yes, such a time does exist). Before being thrown into a world of hand signs and squealing girls, I discovered that things were surprisingly peaceful… and boring.
Family: We’ve always been taught that family is your cousins, brothers, sisters, parents, etc. Well imagine my surprise when I discovered that I would have to take on the responsibility of a little sister. As the emotional mess I am myself, I couldn’t fathom the thought of guiding a little through the crazy ride of joining a sorority, dealing with frat boys, and getting called to standards. Three years later and I am a proud mom and grandma. I guess I did ok.
Pictures: Pictures are supposed to be used to remember a moment in time with the people in them looking poised and perfect right? WRONG. Once going Greek, pictures are used to document the moments you most likely won’t remember, usually involving you and members of your pledge classing throwin’ what you know... Or making a duck face. I’m still trying to understand why that is still a thing (not saying I’m not guilty of it though).
Friends: Your freshman year roommate is going to be your best friend forever, right?! Funny how that one works out. Thankfully when you join Greek life, you instantly have 150 new friends that you are forced to become at least acquaintances with. Spoiler alert: they will become your best friends. You might even call them the sisters you never had. Shocker.
Monday night: Monday nights were always spent catching up on sleep you didn’t get during the weekend. Now they consist of dressing up in business casual (too bad no one actually knows what that means) and listening to the E-board drone on about our behavior at the last social event. Don’t worry, the torture always ends in time to grab a glass of wine and watch "The Bachelor."
Christmas Break: That first Christmas break of freshman year was spent catching up with high school best friends. Aside from that, you were learning how to cope with being told what to do after having so much freedom for 15 weeks and searching for outfits for the upcoming event of recruitment. Well unfortunately, you still spend Christmas break shopping (and shopping and shopping) for recruitment outfits, but this time it’s different. You send all your options to you pledge class GroupMe for approval in between all of the continuous “I miss you guys so much” and “Are we back at school yet?” messages.
Thursday night: As much as I thought about this one, not a thing has changed. Thursday nights still continue to be a black hole that you love to hate and hate to love. Just make sure to not schedule Friday classes before 11AM. Old habits die hard.
