You Shouldn't Drop Recruitment
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Student Life

You Shouldn't Drop Recruitment

Sorority recruitment could either be the best or the worst week of your freshman year.

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You Shouldn't Drop Recruitment
Madison Sweat

The idea of joining a sorority was the most exciting part of my new adventure to college. All summer, my friends and I stalked sorority girls on social media and read up on each chapter at our particular school. We begged people on Facebook to write us recommendation letters and spent tons of money picking out outfits for each day of recruitment. I even read the entire online recruitment packet word-for-word. Three times.

It was now move-in day and I had to say goodbye to my family, best friend, and boyfriend. I knew college was going to be hard, but I was so excited to begin sorority recruitment. It was the only thing keeping me from crying.

Until it actually began.

Rush week was probably hands down the worst week of my life. I not only had to move away from home, leave everyone I knew and loved, and live with strangers in an unfamiliar place, I also subjected myself to long, exhausting days of surface conversations and rejection based on those conversations. Every girl I talked to seemed genuinely interested in me, but when you only have 10-20 minutes to chat about your whole life and future, it basically becomes a questionnaire. Then you move onto the next chapter and have almost an identical conversation. You probably have to apologize for saying something twice because your brain has become mush from repeating the same answers every 30 minutes. I know I did.

Then you get cut.

Getting cut from a house that seemed so picture-perfect, hurts, a lot. You may walk out of those doors thinking you had the best conversations and could picture yourself as one of them, a sister. But when you wake up the next morning and see your list of events for the day lacking that particular chapter, a piece of your excitement for sorority life crumbles.

Why am I doing this? What’s the point if I can’t be in my legacy house or another “perfect” house? Am I ugly? Did I say something wrong? Why did I get cut, but she didn’t? Chances are, you will think about dropping recruitment 10 times in a day.

But don’t. Push through.

My Pi Chi’s repeated the two phrases “you will end up where you are meant to be” and “think of the one where you would feel comfortable eating pizza in your pajamas”. Those oh so reassuring words sounded dandy and all, but when you think your last two houses are “the worst”, it’s hard to believe that you are meant to be there and would even slightly be comfortable.

Then bid day comes.

You wake up and haven’t received the 6 a.m. call that you’ve been cut from recruitment. You are relieved, but also stressed knowing that you ended up with one of the two chapters that you don’t necessarily care for. In my case, I “suicided” my preference day choice, so I woke up knowing I was a sorority girl now. Everyone in my Pi Chi group was so excited to see which one of the two amazing chapters they got. I sat in silence, knowing which one I got. And I wasn’t excited.

At this point, I was just grateful to have gotten into a chapter.

When we opened our bids and ran to our new sisters, of course I tripped and fell on my face. But I got back up and ran home to a group of girls, who I would soon learn were just like me.

Once my new sisters and I walked to our new house, we were greeted by over 200 screaming girls who were so happy to meet us. We immediately put on our new letters and took hundreds of pictures.

Bid day was the best day.

I now had new friends who understood me and my situation. I found my sorority family, including a twin who will always be there for me. Who I could talk to anytime and would see all the time. I was so relieved to have found a place for me at college.

But it wasn’t always perfect.

Sometimes we had obligations that I didn’t want to partake in. Sometimes I was bothered by some of my new sisters. Sometimes I didn’t understand why I was doing what I was doing and why I was paying so much money for something I didn’t always like. And once all the excitement died down, I eventually distanced myself from my chapter and my sorority family. I just couldn’t get over the fact that I was in this chapter and not another. Why did some of my dorm friends get their perfect chapter and I didn’t? If we were such good friends, clearly we were alike and we should be in the same type of house, right? Wrong. And I didn’t know why this felt so wrong. I didn’t understand why I didn’t truly believe I “ended up where I was meant to be”.

After a rough semester of college as a whole, I decided to transfer to another school in my state.

I went to visit the chapter house and see how I liked it. It seemed good enough and I was fortunate enough to be able to move in that coming January.

It was like rush week, except I was already a member.

I went even further from home, left my friends at my old college, and moved in with 50 strangers. At first, I was the new girl and everyone either wanted to meet me or stare at me. Some days were hard because I came in knowing 3 people, 2 of which did not live in the house with me, and 1 that I wasn’t close friends with. I struggled daily to come out of my shell and branch out to my new sisters.

After a couple weeks, I became closer to a few sisters. And after a couple months, I found one of my best friends and a plethora of other great friends. Friends that I can count on to make me laugh. To take me to Taco Bell three nights in a row. To break into the storage freezer and eat ice cream from carton. To stay up late and “study” with. To always keep me on my toes. I am now so grateful as I sit here with my sisters watching Home on Dead’s Day Eve at 1 a.m. in our living room.

Although my journey did not go nearly as planned, I am so grateful for every single step. I am thankful for my old college, for my old chapter, and for my old sisters. I will always carry a piece of them in my heart and keep contact with those who were closest to me. I’m thankful that my family even let me transfer mid-year. I’m thankful for the boy who I basically followed here. Even though we aren’t together anymore, he is the biggest one to thank for me choosing this new school.

And now I am so blessed with the sisters I have here and the amazing chapter I hope to bring greatness to. Yes, I still face the daily challenges of any average college student and sorority girl. No, everything is not nearly perfect here. Far from it actually. But that is honestly the beauty of it all. As sisters, we accept our faults and we pick each other up. And we stick out the hard parts together because the good parts are ALWAYS better. I know that a sister is less than 10 steps away. I really do feel like I am home.

So don’t drop recruitment.

Don’t.

Because even though I didn’t end up in the “perfect” chapter, I ended up in MY perfect chapter. The one that has diverse, imperfect, genuine girls. The one where sisterhood actually means something. And the one that I walk around in my pajamas eating pizza.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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