It's the most wonderful time of the year for your campus' XL t-shirt and Nike-shorts-wearing girls. A lot goes on behind the doors that will eventually open to reveal a million screaming girls in matching outfits, officially marking the beginning of recruitment. Work week is a time of preparation, drama, sleepless nights and excitement. It takes genuine hard work to make sure potential new members have the best recruitment experience possible. Here is a list of the inevitable things that will happen to you during work week:
1. You will never be able to get your chapter's songs and chants out of your head.
You may have practiced them 50 times a day. Even if you can get them out of your head, there is guaranteed to be someone walking around the house still singing them for days to come. Just when you thought you'd escaped the songs and chants, there they are, right back in your head.
2. Food is your motivation.
Counting down the minutes until the 5 p.m. dinner break is the only thing that will carry you through all the cleaning and decorating that still needs to be done. You'll be willing to eat anything and everything in sight, and will fight anyone who stands in your way or cuts to the front of the dinner line.
3. You will consume an unhealthy amount of caffeine in such a short period of time.
You'll wake up 10 minutes early in the morning to be at the front of the line at the Keurig machine because you know you won't make it to 9 a.m. roll call without your coffee fix. For lunch, you'll drink a Monster energy drink, and your drink of choice at dinner will most definitely be a Red Bull.
4. All you'll want is to have a good night out.
How many more days is it until bid day? You will be completely drained of energy, but still begging for a night to let loose and forget about the stress of recruitment. While all of your friends who aren't in sororities are out making the most of their last two weeks of summer, you will be trapped inside all day stalking their Instagram posts and wishing you could be having that much fun.
5. Every part of your body will ache, causing you to lose all of your gracefulness.
Door chants involve squatting and bouncing in a tight group of people for hours each day. You will find random bruises daily, your thighs will be incredibly sore and you will more than likely have your toes stepped on so much that you will question if they are even still attached. Your voice and hearing will be lost, but you'll still somehow manage to smile and do your best at every recruitment party.
6. You will lose all your trust in people because you know the phrase "one more time" really means eight more.
"That was great, ladies. Now let's practice one more time and then take a break." You will know better than to believe those words. Although the people who live in the apartments near your sorority house are so sick of hearing you chant and you also would love for it to stop, you understand that practice makes perfect, and it will all be worth it on bid day when you get the best group of new sisters.
7. You know every line to the skit, and if it came down to it, it could be a one-woman show.
You may not even have a part in the skit, but you will watch it be performed so many times that if put on the spot, you could deliver a killer performance. You'll find yourself reciting the lines along with your sisters when it is being performed, and anxiously awaiting your Academy Award-winning performance when someone loses their voice.
8. You'll forget how to formulate a sentence.
During recruitment, you will talk to hundreds of potential new members and will be responsible for keeping up a conversation, but when you are talking with your friends, you will find yourself stumbling over your words and laughing uncontrollably over things that are not very funny. Blame it on the caffeine and lack of sleep.
9. All you'll want to do is sleep.
All summer long you have been sleeping until noon, but work week comes along and you now do not have the same luxury. The late nights of skit practice and the early morning roll calls will cause you many sleepless nights. You look forward to the best part of the day when you are reunited with your warm, loving bed and soft blanket.
10. You'll forget what natural sunlight and fresh air feels like.
You are trapped inside the sorority house all day for two weeks straight, missing out on all the summer days and prime tanning time that is slipping away. You may lose track of time, and start to question what day it is. The first time you walk outside is a mind-boggling experience that evokes both a sense of freedom and utter confusion.
11. You'll feel a roller coaster of emotions.
You are excited, nervous, stressed, angry, tired, overwhelmed and happy all at once, which you didn't know was possible. You feel the pressure to make sure you are representing what your chapter stands for in the best light and that you recruit the best new pledge class to continue on the legacy. The lack of sleep and normalcy in your life has probably led to both some tears and dance parties with your sisters to Backstreet Boys.
12. You will become even closer to your sisters than you thought was possible.
Though work week can be stressful and exhausting at times, you will have the best sisters to help support each other through it all. Unforgettable memories and chaos are guaranteed, and you'll remember why you joined your chapter in the first place and how special it is the have this kind of bond. Your sisters have become a true second family to you, and you can't wait to introduce even more girls to the place you call home.
