At Augustana College, rushing has started. Many students have traveled for three days over the weekend, meeting each sorority (for women) or each fraternity (for men). So, what happens now?
I remember last year when I was going through the rush process. I was incredibly confused about the entire process and asked questions, but the one consistent phrase I heard was “Trust the system.” I was very skeptical of the phrase because I am someone who loves planning and needing to know what to expect. If I could redo rushing, I would have followed the words from the first time I heard them (it would have saved me a lot of stress). But rushing is a bit stressful from the thoughts of “Did they like me?” to “Did I say the right thing?” to “Oh shit, I fucked that up.” I know I thought that plenty of times during my process.
The next step is when the letters come in to see if you will be invited back to formal. The anticipation of waiting for your letters was a heart-thumping situation and when I went to check my mailbox (when I rushed) I did not receive a single invite. In my mind, I thought that my chances to join a sisterhood were over and I felt sad. The phrase they continuously told me seemed useless then. It wasn’t until later when I received an email from a sorority asking me to go to their formal that my mood lifted and I felt hope again.
The worst part of rushing is waiting from pref day (when you write down which sorority you want to be in) to when you get an invite to join the soroity. The weeks seem to drag on and it becomes a bit stressful trying to distract yourself from thinking if you got in or not. During spring break, I was able to distract myself with reading books, working, and just spending time with family and friends. I remember as I came back to school, my heart thumped against my chest harder each mile we got closer to campus. I felt like I was about to burst as I waited for my Rho Gamma to (possibly) bring me a letter saying that I was invited to pledge a sorority.
To anyone who fears the system or thinks that they won’t be able to go to formal: Don’t give up yet. There are more opportunities than you think there are when rushing. One thing I kept in my head during rushing was if I was not going to (or was not invited to) pledge in any sorority, I had an amazing group of friends that would always stand by me.