I was at a rush party (yes, rush), talking to one of the actives. During our conversation, I mentioned something about having attended church the day before.

Remember, this is Arkansas State. The different church groups all have large, active student groups that have small buildings on campus for meeting and hanging out. Going to church is very acceptable and even encouraged within the GLO chapters.

Active member asks where I went to church. I told him that I attended church of Christ.

"Church of Christ? We'll get you over that. You'll stop going to church in no time."

I politely declined any invitations to their rush parties after that.

I've not been a fan of pink (or super girly things in general...don't get me wrong, I wear dresses, straighten my hair, talk about guys, and occasionally paint my nails, but I hate One Tree Hill and doing aerobics together makes me ill) for a long time. I also didn't want to be in any group where the way I looked/acted was monitored to the point where I would feel like a part of the group MORE than an individual. These were deal breakers to me in regards to one group in particular on campus. In another case I saw the same issues to a smaller degree...but the fact that their skit was about shoes was my deal breaker! Sounds stupid, but I couldn't help it. Not my thing.

One of the sororities I dropped was a "top" sorority on campus that members of my current sorority thought I would want first, so that probably saved me from getting dropped in turn by everyone else as a lost cause. In the two I preffed, I didn't choose one because the girl who was preffing me said I would "feel right" about my choice when I made it and I looked around to a room full of crying girls...that was a deal breaker right there. I wasn't close to shedding any tears. Ironically it was that girl who helped me pick my chapter...she's a complete sweetheart and made it hard, but in the end I ended up in the right place.

There was this one sorority that the pre-recruitment tent talk was really strong for. I remember really wanting to be an XYZ. However, their recruitment chair must have been absolutely nuts that year...she'd match up certain PNMs to actives but with the dumbest "coincidences." I realized that I had met an Anna that day, my friend Erin had met an Erin, my friend Kelly had met a Kelly...I mean, come on. It was ridiculous. I was pretty aware that I was being matched up at the majority of chapters I was at, but at all the other chapters it was based on my activities or hometowns or things like that. But matching up by names? Everybody was joking around for the rest of the day between parties saying things like "Oh. My. God. That's my name TOOO!" because everybody had heard it.

There were other stupid things too...I had written something about Audrey Hepburn movies on my Facebook profile and one of the actives steered our conversation straight towards Audrey Hepburn so we could "randomly discover" this "crazy coincidence" that we shared. I almost felt like being, "Oh, I don't really watch Audrey Hepburn movies" just to confuse the active. Of course I was gracious, but the matchings were just so trivial and obvious that it left a bad taste in everybodies mouths. They had a difficult recruitment that year in that most of their top PNMs wanted to go elsewhere. I know I released them on Day #1 in favor of chapters that were deemed less strong. I am a huge proponent of matching but this story proves you had to do it intelligently.

One of the houses I preffed at sang "The Rose". All I could think about after that was Napoleon Dynamite and the Happy Hands Club. :rolleyes:

There were two strong chapters that were predominantly blonde. I dropped one of them because they were very tan. I'm brunette and very pale. The thought of tanning beds or sitting around at the beach was a deal breaker for me.

I believe one of AOTT's symbols is a sheaf of wheat. Well at pref, there was a sheaf of wheat on the table. I didn't realize it was wheat and thought it was straw or hay - two things that I am deathly allergic to (like throat closing up break out in hives allergic). While everyone was crying at the pref party and listening intently to what was going on, I was focused on the wheat and staying as far away from it as humanly possible. I decided I couldn't be an AOTT because of this.

Not so much a deal breaker, but rather myself as a PNM not paying attention.

This happens ALOOOOOOT to a certain fraternity here who cooks really good catfish and hushpuppies on the last night.