My favorite day of the year? Bid Day. Well, besides Valentine’s Day, of course! Let’s be honest: no birthday or Christmas present can ever top getting new sisters!
However, Bid Day doesn’t just come and go. The months leading up to Bid Day are filled with recruitment workshops, sisterhood week, and then recruitment itself. I’ve come to find that I’m a rare breed ... I LOVE recruitment - and even just putting “love” in all caps doesn’t do my feelings justice. What I love just as much is the week before recruitment, Sisterhood Week. If you ask most sorority girls, they’ll probably tell you the exact opposite. Yes, Sisterhood Week and Recruitment can be long and stressful, but I think we have lost sight of their importance and their purpose.
Here’s why I’ll always love Sisterhood Week:
- You likely haven’t been in the same place with all of your sisters all summer, except maybe once or twice.
- The majority of my pledge class is from out of town/state, so during the summer, I don’t get to see most of them. Sisterhood week is almost like a week of chapter meetings because you get to see all of your sisters, no matter what pledge class they’re in. You get to catch up, share what each of you did for the last two months, and pick up right where you left off.
- You realize how lucky you are to have been chosen to be in the chapter.
- Up until your first experience of recruitment as an active member, you don’t realize the thought and consideration that the chapter goes through when picking their members. It’s humbling to know that they saw something in you before they even knew you.
- You are reminded why you chose the house you did.
- Everyone has their own recruitment experience to tell. Whether you got asked back to the maximum amount of house parties each day, or if you only went to one house on Preference Day, you realize how “trusting the process” really did work out in your best interest.
- You understand why you do what you do.
- The rotations, the chants, the Philanthropy Day craft, the skit, the hours spent at the house - all of it comes full circle on Bid Day. During Sisterhood Week, you are reminded what you stand for, what you believe, and what you represent. If the skit doesn’t give you goosebumps, and if Preference Day doesn’t get you teary-eyed, you’re doing it wrong. You fall in love with your sisterhood all over again - hence why it's called "Sisterhood" Week. And even more importantly, you get to show that love to all of the girls going through recruitment, hoping that they will fall in love as well.
So, the next time you find yourself dreading going to another workshop, or complaining about going through a certain rotation again, step back and remind yourself why you’re there in the first place. Remember what your sisterhood means to you. And most of all, remember how excited you will be on Bid Day, when all of your new sisters run home and you truly see how your hard work has paid off.
