With the start of a new semester comes a fresh wave of Greek life. Whether from primary recruitment or COB, the first couple of weeks of the spring term find both girls and guys anticipating joining a chapter. As a surprise to absolutely everyone around me, I was one of those girls this year.
As a teenage girl with unlimited access to the internet, I had always seen the “sorority girl” stereotype. I remember seeing all of these videos about Bama Rush and how intense it was and thinking to myself, “Is this really all worth it?” My perceived intensity of the whole experience was why when I started my freshman year during the fall semester, rushing was so far out of my mind. I had no interest in anything involving Greek life. I found myself carrying a mental caricature of what a sorority girl looked like, and it was honestly very judgmental. Additionally, the school I go to wasn’t necessarily known for its Greek life the way a lot of SECs are. The University of Houston’s Panhellenic chapters are relatively small in comparison. For all of these reasons, I never even considered Greek life as something I would join. Until I found myself struggling to meet people all throughout my first term.
My university is commonly referred to as a “commuter school.” A large portion of our attendants do not reside on campus. I too am a commuter. I drive roughly 45 minutes to an hour twice a week to attend a couple of my classes. I am pretty introverted and spend most of my class time writing notes. It was hard to meet people because during the few days I was on campus, I was solely focused on my academics. By the last month of my first term, I realized I needed to get out of my shell. I decided to join organizations during the spring semester and made an attempt to talk to people in my classes.
However, by chance, I was reached out to by a few sorority recruiters from my school for COB. The few friends I had made had been reached out to as well. I had no idea what it meant, but it was quickly explained to me. Since my school did primary recruitment in the fall (the whole rushing experience that we’ve all seen at least once on our feed), COB was something different. Essentially, it stood for “continuous open bidding” which meant some of the sororities still had open spots and were hoping to fill them. The process for COB is much more chill. You attend an event or two, and a recruiter will reach out to you if they believe you are a good fit. My friends and I all decided to do it for fun. Our mindset was that even if we didn’t join a sorority, we would get the opportunity to meet new people. We did, and it was honestly really fun. It completely changed the perception I had carried about sororities, more specifically about the sororities at my school. The girls were welcoming and down-to-earth. They were people I probably would not have met otherwise simply because I didn’t attend enough events. As I went from sorority to sorority, I realized that Greek life was more than what I had thought previously. Their philanthropies were a huge part of every event they hosted, and they all emphasized public service as well as sisterhood. Being able to talk to girls who were passionate about a cause and were part of something that regularly served it made me wish I could join one as well. I was fortunate enough to find one that I felt really connected to the girls at and was offered a bid. I said yes. It is a decision I have no regrets about.
The whole experience taught me that misconceptions can rob you of an opportunity that could otherwise better you. If Greek life even slightly interests you, I suggest you take part in some form of recruitment, either primary or COB. Having an open mind can expose you to so many great experiences.