| Stupid Rushee |
07-13-2009 08:20 PM |
Bid Day and beyond
Bid day was a little anticlimactic for me and my roommate. I got a bid to Cherry and joined my sister on her hall. Unlike Katie, nothing had happened all week that would leave me in tears. Suzie joined Watermelon and kept a chip on her shoulder from then on. We didn’t talk much after rush, and she seemed to ignore me when I saw her. I hope she didn’t think I was “too good” for her since she was a Watermelon. I actually did like a lot of the Watermelons. Natalie joined Apple...I was sure she only got in because of her sister. (Sour grapes?!!)
Some of the girls I saw coming down the hall were not people I could see myself being friends with, but I knew that Katie and I were pretty similar. If she liked Cherry, I guess I would too. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t feel different and that the girls around me were just strangers in the same shirts.
The alum that drove me to prefs turned out to be my sister’s adopted Grand Big Sis. She was really cool and came around all the time since she was in grad school. Since it was the first semester that pledge periods had been shortened to 6 weeks, Big Sis/Lil Sis came really quickly. I didn’t know anyone except for my sister. The day before I had to list my preferences for Big Sis, a girl in my Psych class introduced herself to me. She was in my sister’s pledge class. The next night, I put her name down for my Big Sis since I really didn’t know anyone else. Turns out that that alum was her Great, great, great, great grand big sis, and she'd driven me to prefs in my Big's car. She had hand picked me to be in their family and told my Big to meet me. Mandy and I turned out to be great friends, too, over time. The masculine girl from Watermelon’s party came through COB in the spring and pledged Cherry. I thought at the time that Cherries just wanted her because Apple did. I really couldn’t see what they saw in her...and I still don’t because she ended up sleeping with my Big Sis’ fiance! (She tried to friend me on Facebook recently...yeah right!) The important thing I learned is that you're never going to like everyone.
It took me some time to feel that Cherry feeling. Moving into the dorm my second semester helped. We sat up late on most nights in our foyer talking. That's when I really started feeling close to my sisters. Our Chapter Adviser realized that I was artistic and enlisted me to make decorative letters for the dorm windows. This got me started doing projects for the chapter. I don’t think I’d have known I was good at finishing projects if she hadn’t seen it in me. I ended up painting Big Sis/Lil Sis presents and party cups for half the chapter. I took an office- House Manager then ran for a bigger office the next fall. I realized that the more I did with the chapter, the more I started to feel that feeling of sisterhood. I never thought about dropping out since Cherry was a jumping point for joining other groups on campus. After a semester or so, I realized that Cherry was my life!
I ended up taking 3 Lil Sisters, and lived in the dorm the rest of my time in college. I never did like the singing and dancing....thank God that only really happened at rush! My last year, I decided to become a Rho Chi. Luckily, my rushees were smarter than me and actually used my expertise. I thought the experience would be easier than singing and dancing for a whole week, but I was emotionally drained by the experience. Recruitment is such a tough time for women. So many of my rushees had disappointing experiences due to grades, some were like me and just didn’t get the whole deal and some didn’t get the chance to join a sorority. I was baffled because each and every one of the women in my group were awesome people. I couldn’t see how the chapters, including my own, could cut them. I came to realize that recruitment is an imperfect process. For every girl who joins her dream chapter, there is a girl who has to make the chapter she joins into her dream chapter.
I am grateful that I got to join Cherry. I was lucky that my experience, my bad attitude and my stupid behavior didn’t ruin my chance to join a sorority. I lucked out that my sister and her sisters really did want me around. I have no illusions that I was the perfect rushee that got cut for no reason! Instead of seeing me as Greek material for having a sister in another chapter, talking about my sister at every party made them all think I wanted to be a Cherry. I’m lucky that I wasn’t discouraged by not “feeling at home” and not clicking with my new sisters after a short week of rush. After all, I’d only spent approximately 4 1/2 hours with the Cherries before I was one of their “sisters.” Cherry grew on me over time. I’m glad I had the luxury of time!
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