On the first day of school, a lot of emotions run high as a college freshman. You are starting a new chapter of your life in college, living in a new place, with new people, new classes, new rules, and new expectations. If your rush process is like my school's, then your Bid Day for sororities happens to fall on the first day of school. Due to this, a whole bunch of emotions and worries are added the first day of classes. As you walk to campus, you start seeing a bunch of girls, all wearing similarly themed shirts with "Bid Day" and their respective house in fancy writing on them. Most likely, you're wearing the formal recruitment shirt for Potential New Members yourself along with all the other girls who survived formal recruitment.
There are so many emotions that can run through your head on Bid Day. Worry that you won't get the house you really wanted or that you won't get anything at all, hope that you did, panic that you'll somehow mess it up (at least if you're me I worried about that), unease about the future, excitement about the future, wishing you could've talked more to one girl at one house or another; the list can go on and on. The entire day can seem surreal, like you're living in a dream or are having some kind of otherworldly experience.
Finally, you get your bid and all of the uncertainty about where you're going both goes away and a whole new uncertainty comes up. Should you take this house? Is this where you really want to be for four years (maybe five) and be a member of for a lifetime? For some, it may be the house you have always dreamed of. For many others, including me, it is a house you're still unsure of. For whatever reason, you accept the bid and get your bid day shirt on and prepare to run with all the other girls now wearing your shirt. Maybe you became friends with them during recruitment, or maybe you've never seen them before in your life. But now you have a special bond with them as your new member class, and it may seem overwhelming.
If there's one thing sorority members would like you to know, it might be this. Whichever house you end up joining, it does not have to all fall into place at once, and you or the house doesn't need to be perfect. Being in a sorority is a wonderful adventure, and it can be a tumultuous journey of emotions. Embrace the journey and the uncertainty of being a new member. Do everything you can to learn about and understand your new home. I always heard "You get out of it what you put in" as a new member and it's certainly true. The popularity of a chapter will wax and wane, but the sisterhood is truly for life. Welcome to your home away from home.
