When I told my family and close friends I had decided to rush for a sorority, they were completely shocked. "That just doesn't seem like your thing," they would say. I have met so many awesome young ladies throughout this experience so no matter what, I will not regret this experience. Meeting all the new faces in the short amount of time was super fun. I am not a great initiator when it comes to meeting people or friendships, so deciding to take part in recruitment was a leap of faith for me. As skeptical as I was, deep down I knew it was a great thing for me to take a chance. No regrets, right? Going out of my comfort zone and having to socialize at a constant rate for long periods of time was super challenging but a huge learning experience. Girls have a way of coming off intimidating and somewhat judgmental. This is why I have always focused on the close relationships I have but this experience has shown me that yes you can sometimes meet very special and considerate young women.
The hardest part by far about this process is seeing the disappointed, and sometimes heartbroken, faces. Some ladies waited their entire life to be a part of a sorority, I heard this stated many times. Or many ladies came in with a very specific sorority in mind, and were crushed when the didn’t see their name on their time slot of houses to go to. I was crushed for them. I had decided to rush on a last second whim over the summer. I thought it would be a great way to get involved and for the endless possible networking opportunities. Some ladies strive to do it to have another family away from home and hundreds of sisters to call their own in a specific sorority. Some wanted to be in the sorority their mother or sister was in. No one in my family had ever been in a sorority so there was no deep rooted bias in me. So I sympathized with them even though I did not understand the way they felt for greek life but I have experienced disappointing situations through my journey in youth and high school sports. I have been cut from teams and placed on lower level teams, for sports I loved dearly. It was the hardest thing I had ever gone through: that feeling of not being "enough." Truth is, God has a different plan than the one you have for yourself. These situations were once detrimental but now I have realized that those heartbreaks have totally and completely shaped who I am today and how I deal with disappointments. Throughout recruitment, there will be ladies with this same disappoint. But what I hate is that some of these ladies would look inward on what they might have done wrong. I am saddened seeing people let down but I am heartbroken by seeing people questioning their self worth. Especially over something so insignificant. I’m sorry (not sorry) but there is absolutely no sorority, organization, or club in the universe that should make you feel any less at the circumstance of their rejection. Confidence and self worth comes from within, not the dress you where or the makeup you buy. The only rejection worthy of despair is His. And by His, I mean the most powerful and insanely loving "organization" there is. The organization of being a Christian and being a follower of Jesus Christ. Belonging to Him and having His approval is what matters most. It is one thing to know this, but another thing to believe this. Self-worth no matter what happens is one thing I wish the greek organization all around would have emphasized more on. This process of recruitment for a sorority weighs no bearing on your success, beauty or worth.
In my personal recruitment experience each day I was happily surprised with the ones I had the most fun and connection with. So in that specific area, recruitment went so well for me! I had absolutely no idea what the process was like or what to expect each day so it was nice to have comfort that I was seeing my favorite faces of sororities each day. On the other hand, a huge surprise to me was the organization and functioning of recruitment. We were not suppose to talk while we waited for our parties. In the beginning we could chat a little but as the night went on they would become stricter on this rule. I understand that this was so that this could be an experience of reflection and that we would rely on our personal preferences and thoughts when it came down to preference making. With hundreds of women in the room of course it was hard to actually stay quiet and, of course, for them to keep us all quiet. Especially when you had to wait for a party to start from 4:30 PM all the way to 9:00 PM. This was an experience of mine for two nights, and boy I was not expecting that. At times, it became quite eerie and hostile. I was mentally drained from all of the waiting. Just sitting around for majority of the nights was a shocker and probably the only thing that I won’t miss about it all!
I am so happy I decided to participate in recruitment and it is definitely something I would recommend to anyone. Although it is not for everyone, you never really quiet know until you try!
