RUSH BEGINS

After being at the college for the fall term I had a pretty god idea of what most of the sororities were like. Being from the South I also thought I had a good idea of what rush would be like and didn’t expect any surprises. As to recs, they told us they weren’t required but I knew enough not to fall into that trap so with my moms help I got two for every house only to find out later they really didn’t matter. As the university draws student from all over the country there were few friends from HS to take up the openings and being a legacy didn’t much matter unless it was a same chapter one and legacy mom was active in the chapter alum association. So rush at my university operated on a lot more level playing field than is common at a state university but the word was it was competitive and the previous year only about 75% of the girls who began the process ended up with bids. Talk about scary. Two things I remember as rush started. First, it was so cold with huge piles of snow everywhere. Second, no matter what happened I swore they would never make me cry.

As to my view of the chapters as rush opened:

Mercury – Top chapter, the rich and the beautiful.
Venus - Top chapter, cool and classy, the object of my desire.
Mars – Hard charging party girls, very popular with the top fraternities.
Saturn – Nothing special, just a bunch of very nice girls.
All others – Not relevant to my story.

I am not going to bore you with the endless details of who spoke to whom and what they said at every party during every round because I can’t remember most of it so here is a summary of the opening rounds.

Mercury – These girls had rush down cold, almost a professional operation, but I was surprised by them. I went in thinking they would be very snobby because they all looked like they jumped off the cover of Glamour but they were so friendly and nice I could almost see myself there. They didn’t and cut me after the first round.

Venus – The girls I spoke to seemed to know all about me. One referred to me as Kathy’s friend. On my way out the door at the last party before pref, Kathy came over and said everybody loved me and hoped I loved them. I told her my dream was to be a Venus. OMG, I was going to be a Venus.

Mars – You joined Mars to party and they talked about the fraternity parties, bars and clubs they went to. I had met some of the Mars at fraternity parties and liked them but wasn’t sure they were right for me. They didn’t either and cut me after the second round.

Saturn – I really clicked with those girls and they came within one inch of promising me a bid but I was going to be a Venus so they were just going to have to be disappointed.

Jen was having a fab rush. She was doing the cutting, not being cut. She loved Mercury. Heather was cut by Mercury but didn’t seem to care. She was very quiet about her favorites.

As to the other girls in my rush group and dorm, there were many heavy cuts. Many just dropped out. Some big time tears were shed.

This is the first recruitment story EVER where news of being cut made me laugh out loud. BadCat, you are a HOOT!

I need to give kudos to BadCat. You're a good writer; I actually believe you attend a top university. Also, a PNM that understands she's not the center of the universe and has a healthy self-esteem. Whichever GLO pledged you is lucky. (Also, a tip of the whip to a fellow equestrian.)

I love the frozen wastelaa...wait a minute, it's not a wasteland! We only freeze from about November April (or May in some years). Then again, those of you with thin blood tend to think that anything below 55 is freezing.

Just kidding, looking forward to the story!

Totally agree with all this. BadCat, I love how you write, and I love the wit that comes through. This is a fun read!

Try below 70 degrees!

Sometimes I think how great it would be to go to someplace like the University of Arizona or San Diego State where you wear shorts and a bikini top to class in January.

Tucson's warm but not that warm in January ...

I would love to live anywhere like that too, but not even in Miami do girls wear bikini tops to class. :(

I'm hooked!

Not in Arizona either. Even in 115 degree weather, women wore halters or tanks with shorts or a sun dress to class. When the temperature hits about 60, most natives break out the parkas but the out of staters are still in their shorts. :D

As a native Arizonian I can state that this is absolutely true! :D

It was pretty fun going to ASU and in the middle of December I'm totally bundled up and then seeing the people from other states walking around in shorts (and possibly a long sleeve shirt) but no jacket and and the flip flops. Great fun. :D

PREF PARTY INVITES

When the three of us went to pick up our pref party invites I was on top of the world. I was headed for Venus. Not. How could they do this? How could Kathy say everybody loved me? I was sick. Why oh why did I ever get involved in this in the first place? I went over to my RC and told her I was going to drop out. She asked to see my invite list and when I showed it to her she said I was being stupid because I had some great choices left including Saturn so I should stick it out. I really liked her and was so emotionally drained I said I would. Jen got her invite to Mercury and was ecstatic. Heather was headed to Mars but continued to be very cool about the whole thing.

OMG! I hate those two-faced Venus snots!! (I am way too emotionally invested in this thread, especially considering that it's not even live. No matter.)

This being the reason I left new england for college. Yeeeeah south west florida.

That and being anemic, i get cold wicked easy.