I knew nothing about sororities before going through recruitment, and after an intense, long and exhausting weekend, I finally understand what sororities seem to be all about. However, there were so many weird and unusual traditions that were unexpected and confusing. Here are a few that I learned and think would be beneficial to know beforehand!
1. You’ll learn some new terminology!
There are so many different terms and names for activities and people and just the sororities in general, that it can often get confusing to know what they all mean. For example, “parties” are the events for each sorority where you go in and talk to the sisters. All of the people rushing are called PNMs which stands for a potential new member. It took me so long to understand all of the new words and phrases, but I eventually got it by the end of the long weekend. On the first day, I also was so confused about all of the different names and abbreviations for the different sororities that I had trouble keeping track of which one was which!
2. There is A LOT of chanting!
As you walk into each room for the parties all of the sisters are lined up and chant and sing their songs as loud as they can. This really took me by surprise on the first day and was very overwhelming and foreign to me, but by the end of the weekend it became normal and even fun!
3. There is even more waiting around!
In between the different parties all 700 PNMs had to sit in a big room if we had breaks in our schedule. The room had no windows and was lit by harsh fluorescent lights. For me, waiting in this room just made me more and more antsy and nervous for my parties. I realized that I much prefer going into multiple parties in a row because I was able to get in a good and talkative mindset, and having a break would usually cause me to stress and lose this mindset.
4. It was like we were being babysat!
We were not allowed to go anywhere outside of the waiting room unless we were accompanied by a Pi Chi, which is a leader of the different recruitment groups. We had to be accompanied at all times, even when we wanted to get food or coffee.
5. It is exhausting!
I knew that going through recruitment was going to be tiring and extensive, but I didn’t realize the extent of how tired I was going to be. It wasn’t as much physical exhaustion, but mentally, I was completely drained. Having extremely intimate conversations nonstop for four days in a row wore me down and by the end of the weekend, so many girls had lost their voices.
Even though recruitment was tiring and confusing, I am so happy that I persevered through the process. It was long and exhausting, but I am glad that I was able to get through it and meet so many new people!
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