When I first transferred to UCLA, I was interested in joining Greek life because I had many acquaintances from high school who rushed and they seemed like they loved their respective chapters.

But when I moved into my dorm in fall 2018, I was on the fence about going through the formal recruitment process because it seemed so long. I ended up choosing to not go through formal recruitment because I easily made a lot of friends from my dorm building during move-in weekend.

But the thought of eventually joining Greek life in my senior year still remained since formal recruitment is only once a year in the fall.

I heard about some houses who did recruitment throughout the academic year but I wasn't sure if it was true because I kept also hearing that the only time house do recruitment is only once a year.

It was not until my spring quarter that I heard about some houses doing something called "COB," or "continuous open bidding," which is casual, informal recruitment.

One of my best friends told me she was interested in rushing a sorority so I came with her to one of the recruitment events with her just to see what sorority life was about but I was not particularly going into it to join a house at first.

Although I was interested in joining Greek life early into my transfer experience, I was very skeptical about the sorority lifestyle. All this skepticism grew from outsiders' perspectives on Greek life and those bad things I would hear in the media.

Yet when I first stepped into the house of Alpha Gamma Delta, I immediately fell in love.

The girls were really genuine and welcoming and each conversation I had with the girls in the chapter was very natural. I noticed there was a lot of diversity within the chapter, which is something I really value being an ethnic minority. I felt genuinely wanted and the informal events of recruitment were extremely fun and showed me how important sisterhood was to this house.

I accepted my bid because my first-year experience as a transfer was not what I had hoped it would be as I went through a lot mentally and physically. I wanted to put myself out there and out of my comfort zone and see if Greek life would better my experience going into my senior year.

Even though I joined in the spring quarter and didn't know too many girls at first, including my big, I still felt at home and I knew eventually I would get to know more of the girls in my chapter.

Before the 2019-2020 academic year began, we had pre-recruitment practice to get ready for formal recruitment and during this week, I got closer to my sisters and it reassured that I joined the right house and made the right choice of going Greek.

I might be very biased but my chapter has helped me in many ways than others and my sisters have been such a great support system. I am proud to have joined Alpha Gam and I hope that girls interested in Greek life find what I have found in my chapter wherever they end up at.