We’ve all heard the sentence “trust the process.” I know that’s not the easiest thing to here when you’re looking at the list of chapters you got asked back to and none of your favorites are on there. For those of you rushing next year I hope you’ll listen closely to what I’m about to say.

It’s the third day of rush, you’re frantically meeting up with your rho gamma group to see what houses you will be seeing today. You open the schedule, okay so you lost your second favorite house, and your fourth favorite, but you see your third favorite house on the list, and not to mention YOU STILL HAVE YOUR FAVORITE HOUSE. So why all the anxiety? Take a deep breath and relax. Everything will work out in your favor.

Now to the most exciting day, Preference Day. You get your schedule, wow most of your favorites dropped you. Today is the day when you can only see two houses and you have one house who you feel you really don’t connect with, but then there’s still YOUR FAVORITE HOUSE. You should be excited at this point, why all the anxiety? Getting to preference day and still being with your favorite house is an honor. But you’ve heard they don’t give out many bids, and you’ve heard that it’s one of the hardest chapters to get into, so you might as well just assume you are going to be stuck with the house you don’t connect with very well. WRONG. Stop overthinking it, these are all rumors you’ve heard. Go in there and rock it, if you’ve made it this far chances are good they want you. If you’re feeling stressed talk to your rho gamma at the end of the night, she will calm your nerves.

The big day is here, Bid Day. Your nerves are somewhat settled; you know you killed it last night. So why wouldn’t you get a bid? You walk down to the bid day building and meet up with your rho gamma group. Feeling nervous? Don’t worry so is the whole room. Whatever happens is for a reason. Maybe you get that chapter that you are not crazed about, but so what? The system is meant so that everyone is happy. Try it out and see if you make good connections, and if you don’t then you can always quit. One thing that everyone forgets is that you’re not forced to stay in this organization, no one is forcing you to be a part of a sorority.

It’s time, the PanHellenic council is counting down “10,9,8,7…3,2,1” you shred the envelope in half. What does your bid say?

Well I know what mine said. It said that I was about to join the chapter that I fit into, that I was about to join the most amazing group of girls.

Yes, that’s right, I got my favorite house since day one.

I do sometimes wonder what it would be like to be in the other chapter, would bid day have been the best day of my life like it was?

I don’t know, all I know is that I am where I belong. I’ve known it since day one. My favorite chapter out of all eight chapters. It doesn’t matter how pretty they are, or how many likes on their Instagram they have, or what cool sisterhood events they have. What matters is that I was always excited to see them each day during rounds. I felt comfortable talking to them, I didn’t need to pretend I was someone I wasn’t. I could easily converse with them and feel as if I had known them for months.

Trust the process, because if it didn’t work, I would not be what I am proud to call myself today.

I am an Alpha Phi.