By Lauren Kate Drewry
After Bid Day last week, many people have asked me: What exactly do you do on Bid Day? This question honestly stumped me. It is one of those things that you just have to experience to understand, but I’ll do my best to give you a rundown of it all. Bid Day can really be summed up into two words: mass chaos.
The morning of Bid Day I woke up around 9am and had to be in the Grove at 12. When I got into the Grove, there were people everywhere. It was like an Ole Miss game day without all the tents. There were parents running around everywhere trying to get a good spot to see their child open their bid. There were a few sorority girls holding up their giant letters dressed from head to toe in the craziest costumes. Gamma Chis (our small rush group leaders) were catching girls left and right and trying to get everyone where they were supposed to be. There were hundreds of chairs set up for the rushees to sit with their groups for the presentation. It was the most chaotic scene I had ever been a part of, but I knew that this day was probably going to be the most fun of my life.
When everything finally began to settle down, the parents were sent to stand far back where they couldn’t get in the way. All of the rushees sat in the seats, and they began a huge presentation to reveal the sororities that the Gamma Chis were in. Throughout Rush, the Gamma Chis were not allowed to let anyone in their rush groups know what sorority they were in so that they couldn’t influence our decisions. They all stood up on the amphitheatre stage with giant trash bags on over their sorority t-shirts. The girls started a sorority chant, and if they were a member of that sorority, they came up and ripped off their trash bags. The presentation was absolutely hilarious and exciting because we all had bets on which sorority our Gamma Chi was in.
After the presentation, it was the moment we all had been waiting for. The Gamma Chis finally handed out our Bid cards in a small envelope. They counted down from 3, and every girl opened their card at the same time. The entire Grove blew up in an eruption of screaming new sorority girls, including myself, and all of us ran to the giant letters that were set up for each sorority. It was such an exciting moment that the entire celebration is somewhat of a blur to me. There were girls screaming, crying, and jumping up and down. The parents stormed in and found their daughters, and celebrated with them.
After about 10 minutes, over the loudspeaker, someone said, “Everyone run to your house!” If you thought what I’ve told you so far was absolute chaos, this took it to a whole new level. Imagine over 1,000 girls all running and screaming like a stampede down one road. Some girls passed out, some fell and were trampled, others were blindly shoving through everyone down one road. There were parents chasing after them all and trying to take pictures of their daughter running to their new house. Fortunately for me, my house was close by and I didn’t have to run far. Once I got there everything was happening so fast I could hardly keep my head on straight. One of my friends in the sorority grabbed me and, in less than a second, I had a jersey, a hat, and a nametag on. Everyone was pulling me left and right to take a picture.
Photo credits: Pixabay
After the huge scene outside the house, things began to settle down quickly and everyone began to filter into the house to find their Bid Day baskets. When I walked in, I immediately found my basket next to a huge poster with my name on it. It was overflowing with things with my sorority letters on it and my sorority colors. We had a huge picture taking session again, and then I had to say goodbye to my parents because they were loading us up on a bus to take us to our Bid Day Party. Each sorority took their new members to a rented venue to have a big party to celebrate the new pledge class. We had pizza, cake, face paint, and a huge dance party.
Although everything was very chaotic and wild, this day was one I would never forget. Bid Day is an experience like none other, and that day will always hold a special place in my heart. This may have sounded absolutely insane, but I hope this helps you understand a little more about the Bid Day experience.