Last fall, my first semester at UMass, I chose not to rush and be a part of Greek Life. It wasn’t that I had anything against greek life, it was just that I knew nothing about it.
I always thought of it as something that I’ll think about when the time comes, but when the time did come, I just wasn’t prepared and I was honestly overwhelmed. It was still the first month of college and it was all nothing like how I thought it would be. Everything was new and different and I was trying to take it all one day at a time. With everything that was going on, it just didn’t seem like I had time for greek life. At that time, it just felt like another responsibility that I might not have the time for.
Instead of rushing, I watched my friends rush.
I watched them go through the nerve wrecking, week long process. I remember watching them get heart broken when the “perfect house” dropped them and feel a sense of relief that I wasn’t in their place. I also remember watching them be over the moon when the week came to end and another “perfect house” chose them and thinking ‘I want that.’ I realized, in that moment, that I chose not to rush for all the wrong reasons. I didn’t rush not because I didn’t want to, but because I was scared to. I was scared that greek life might not be for me, even though there’s no way I could have known without giving it a chance.
In short, seeing everyone who is a part of greek life is what made me sign up for recruitment this coming fall. If I can even have the chance of finding a second home on campus, like many others have, I figured it’s worth a shot. I have hope that I will come out of rush week satisfied and happy. There’s no way of knowing what the outcome of that week will be, but it’ll be happy knowing that I didn’t hold back from something I want to do. Also, knowing that I could come out of the week with new friendships and new connections that will last a lifetime makes me hopeful. Going into recruitment, still not knowing much more than I did last fall, my only goal is to not have regrets.
