Oh, recruitment. The two weeks of your life that you will never get back. The tears, the laughter, the stress-induced breakdowns, the lack of sleep, and the blisters, that all make it worth it in the end when you see the new pledge class running to you with open arms.
I remember going into recruitment as a sophomore, ready to recruit some awesome girls, and I was way too excited. Something about just having moved into the sorority house and being surrounded by all of my friends made it even better despite all of the warning I had heard before about how recruitment sucked. Well here is the secret, for the people who will be new to recruitment and even for the girls who have hated it the past two years, recruitment is the best sisterhood event you'll ever go to.
It's better than the socials, or chapter meetings, or those nights where everyone is crowded around the couch watching "The Bachelor," I promise it is better than that. At the beginning of recruitment I had my roommates, who also doubled as my best friends, a couple of more girls I was kind of close with, and the rest were just names in my pledge class that I knew. By the end of the week I had my roommates, and the rest of my pledge class, who I somehow got ridiculously close with.
Recruitment has a negative connotation attached to it because yes, it is an exhausting and emotional process, but I'm sure your recruitment director has repeated to you over and over again, "It will be so worth it in the end, just think of all the amazing girls we are going to get." While I heard this, in my mind I just kept thinking, "Screw this, I'm tired and I want to eat something different for lunch than cold cut sandwiches," but by the middle of the week something clicked, and I remembered why I loved being in a sorority so much and why I loved everyone in mine.
Recruitment is full of late nights, separated into committee work with girls you probably don't know as well, staying up late talking and bonding about how the glitter literally won't come out of anything. It's full of countless hours of practicing the different flows, how to greet girls at the door,
and all the nitty gritty details. It's full of bonding over how coffee is the only thing keeping you alive that week. It's full of helping each other straighten out the kinks in your hair, or painting each other's nails when they chip. It's full of tears from not getting enough sleep, being frustrated or watching your recruitment/pref day video and remembering why you love your sisters so much. It's full of anticipation and excitement. It's full of bouncing up and down as soon as you finish the last party on pref day and everyone cheering because you know the next day you will be welcoming home new sisters. Recruitment is full of getting to know new people and becoming close with them, it's about falling asleep that night and having your feet ache but still getting up the next day to do it all over again because you love your sorority that much. Recruitment is about hard work and dedication but most of all it's about showing girls why your sisterhood is the best, and at the same time falling more and more in love with it after each stress-filled day.
So to the girls who will be new to recruitment and to the girls dreading it every year, recruitment is what you make it, so make it about sisterhood.
