Picture this: you’ve wanted to join a sorority since the second you walked onto campus your freshman year. You can’t wait for rush, your mind is filled with excitement of the thought of getting into your top sorority and running to them on bid day. You go through your first two days getting called back to all the sororities you liked. You then have to wait a week to hear back on who wants to talk to you again for the second weekend. You receive your call from your Rho Gammas (a sister in a sorority who disaffiliated from her organization to be a guiding mentor to potential new members during rush). You’re standing in Dunkin’ with your friends and rush outside to take the call. Your Rho Gammas inform you that only two houses called you back for your third round, and nothing against the organization, but they weren’t the girls you thought you connected with the most throughout the first two days. You keep your composure until you get into your friend’s car. The feeling of getting dropped from your top sororities is a pain I don’t wish on my worst enemy.
All your friends will tell you that it has nothing to do with your character and how it’s all a “numbers game” but you don’t want to hear any of it. Your mind instantly fills with flashbacks to rounds thinking about what you could’ve said wrong, if you said something you shouldn’t have, if you should’ve worn a different outfit, or had straightened your hair instead of slicking it back. You fill out the form to drop out of recruitment, you contemplate if that was the right thing to do. Maybe I should’ve stuck to it? Maybe I would’ve been happy with one of the org’s that called me back?
Flash forward one year.
Recruitment is coming up again. Your friends are all telling you to rush again, maybe things will be different this time around. It’s only a few days before the form is due to sign up for formal recruitment. You think “what the hell, why not.” You sign up. You put in all the extracurriculars you have done in the past year, you submit your best picture and complete the form. The first two days felt like deja vu. You get the basic questions out of the way (what’s your name, major, home town, what do you do for fun, what makes you want to rush). Although, something is a little different this time around, you feel more comfortable, you know what to expect. Flash to the second weekend and that feeling in your stomach comes back, waiting for the call on who called you back. You think to yourself whatever happens, happens.
Your call comes in and you get called back to almost all the sororities you wanted, you’re upset about the ones that dropped you, but your top house is still on the roster. Suddenly, you blink and it’s bid day. You are sitting in an office with your Rho Gammas and it’s time to open the envelope. You start to open it when you see a bit of green peeking out the envelope. You almost cry from excitement (I’m dramatic, this wasn’t a surprise). You run back to your dorm, jumping into your friend’s arms. They’re all so excited for you. You run back to the student center for the Rho Gamma reveal, when your Rho Gamma group is called, you dash to your sorority. You know now you made the right decision in rushing a second time.
Some things I learned after rushing NOT ONCE but twice:
- Everything happens for a reason, it’s a cliché but it’s true.
- Getting dropped from a sorority, or not being in a sorority your freshman year is not the end of the world even though it may feel like it sometimes.
- Going through rush is not for the faint of heart and is not all sunshine and rainbows.
- Follow your heart.
- Be yourself and don’t change who you are just to get into a sorority.