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Hey Everyone,

I've only posted a few times on this board, but I definitely floated around a lot and all the information I've learned on here has been invaluable so far at U. Florida's Rush. This is a biggin, so if you don't feel like reading my rush experience up to halfway through round II, you might want to move on... he he

We had an informational meeting last Saturday at our University Auditorium. I had rushed through round I last year so it was old hat for me, (the skits, meeting the PX's, etc...), but I had forgetten the vibe that went down when 1200 girls all gathered together for the beginning of recruitment. A mix of nervousness and excitement and insecurity and adventure just permeated the whole place. Even though I had a good idea what was going to go down, I still was surprised at my own anticipation and anxiety. Despite the mixed feelings of everyone there, PX's to pledges, there was this strange sense of shrouded promise... the person you didn't know sitting next to you could end up being your sister next week!

Anyways, the rest of that informational day was a complete chore. It took hours to straighten out everyone's information and get people prepared for what recruitment was all about.

That night, I couldn't sleep at all. I wish I could say it was b/c I was jazzed about recruitment. Unfortunately it was because I had a fever and my tonsils had swollen and pussed over. (pretty vomitous, eh?) I went down to Publix, got echinacea tea, some power bars, tons of meds and went home trying to heal myself in time for the next day. I was doing a little better in the morning, but still not fantastic. I decided I needed to pull it together though, I really feel like this is my last shot at recruitment and I want to make it count. So I put on my red a&f short sleeve polo, a cute khaki skort I bought at banana this summer and my favorite pair of reefs. I put on my makeup, stuffed chloroseptic and ibuprofin in my bag and headed off. Even if I had been well the first day, I don't think I could have looked much better. I felt miserable, but my confidence made me feel like a million bucks. The houses we went to on the first day were Phi Mu, ZTA, TriDelt, KD, Sigma Kappa, D Phi E, Theta and Pi Phi. I won't get into specifics on all of the houses, but I really enjoyed day one despite my sickness. Day two, I was still really ill. My fever had come back the evening before and I spent the first part of my night feeling really overheated, then cold and sweaty. Terrible. Day two I hit KKG, DG, Chi O, Alpha Chi, AOII, A E Phi, and ADII.

During round I, I was really pleased b/c I knew I had represented myself well despite my sickness. I also had met plenty of great girls, had some wonderful talks, seen some wonderful houses, and kept my expectations neutral, an important lesson I learned last year. I dropped last year because I had put all my hopes into one house, and when that one house didn't pan out, I said to hell with it. Big mistake. This year, I had my opinions but I kept my expectations low. I was tremendously pleased with my invitations back.

When I got to pre-prefs this morning, I definitely had butterflies in my stomach. The rejection from last year had stung a pretty terrible blow to my self esteem. This time when I got my card back, I had ten houses on it out of fifteen. Three houses that hadn't invited me back, I was mildly surprised by, but not terribly shocked or disappointed. Two, I had expected not to invite me back, I think they were just as aware as I was that it wasn't a place I would mesh well with. So, drumroll please, the list of my houses for round II:

Alpha Chi, Chi O, DG, TriDelt, KD, Theta, Phi Mu, Sigma Kappa, A E Phi, and KKG.

Tonight, we had Round II and it was just a blast. I visited six houses this evening and felt an almost unreal connection with the first one I went to. My cheeks were killing me from smiling so hard when I was leaving, and I just couldn't stop. It was an overwhelming, almost consuming experience. Unreal. I had an AMAZING time at two of them (although it was decidedly overshadowed by my ridiculously great experience at house #1), enjoyed my time at another two, but didn't feel comfortable there, and flat out hated the other one. Once again, I'm trying not to tie all my hopes and dreams to any particular house and I still have four more to visit. I don't want to say which ones I liked and which ones (ok, one) I despised for several reasons. I hope my diplomacy doens't make this story any more boring than it probably already is. ha ha http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif

Thus ends the first half of round II. You all are getting a very truncated taste of what I've experienced so far. I've made some awesome friends in my rush group and elsewhere and had some pretty amazing experiences. I wish I had started writing this down sooner, just so that it wouldn't be so condensed and brief... I'll let you all know how things go!

M

ps- for those who care http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif
Second day of round I, I wore a white sleeveless turtlneck from J Crew with some really cute blue shorts and my reefs again. Today I wore a denim skirt from banana and this g-g-g-GORGEOUS white cashmere t shirt with a tank underneath. I was big pimpin'! Plus I carried my new KS, I got a million and one compliments. Recruitment is so fun!