Ladies, here is my goal: when I finish the fifth page of my Spanish paper (it has to be 9,) I will post the next installment.

Cheer me on!

^Good luck! that sounds brutal.

1PM-5PM, the other half
 

Hey ladies! Contrary to popular belief, I have absolutely not written five pages. In fact, I'm in exactly the same place as I was when I posted that I wanted to finish 5 pages. However, I'm really hungry, and I can't think when I'm hungry, so while I'm waiting for my food to come, I shall post :)

Where we last left off, I had just visited Grape a new and struggling local.

Next on the party list was...

Pineapple: I walked into the house, and I was shocked by how beautiful every single Pineapple was exquisite. It was easy to see why they were considered a "top" house. Each girl had her own style, which really impressed me. There was definitely not a cookie cutter type of girl here. The girl that rushed me, Ana, was a real sweetheart yet sophisticated. We were both on the equestrian team in high school, so we chatted about that for a while, before the conversation got a little stale. I felt like she was genuinely interested in me and my hobbies, and this impressed me even more. I left really loving this house and definitely ranking it in my top four.

Blueberry: The house was decorated so nicely on the inside. It was so warm and cozy! I believe this is the second oldest house on campus, and that really appealed to me because that meant there would be so much history and tradition in the sisterhood. I definitely wanted to be part of a long standing tradition (I realize now that this was a silly thing to want, not because tradition is silly, but because many many houses will offer tradition and history). Anyway, I loved that fact that it was very old...until I started talking to my Rusher. I don't mean to be rude, but she just seemed so unintelligent. To me she seemed the stereotypical dumb blonde type. Everything I asked her, she just giggled and gave some silly answer that was not really relevant to my question. It was such an odd experience. Then she bumped me to another sister, and she just kept talking about the amazing mixers and socials they have. She never failed to emphasize that they had the best mixers with the best frats. I could not wait for this party to be over and practically ran out of there when time was called.

Cantaloupe: This was another "top" sorority on UCF's campus. I remember thinking it was kind of strange that I was visiting all the "top" sororities in the afternoon - it was kind of draining, having to remember that I was meeting the "elite" sorority girls and that I had to give off that "elite" image to have a successful party. It's not that I wanted to join a "top" sorority because they were the top ones - I just didn't want to close any doors on myself. Sorry! Tangent! Anyway, Cantaloupe was...lovely. On campus they were known as the old money sorority. I thought they would be snobbish, but they weren't at all. They were all very prim and proper, but I felt like I had to be on my best behavior, and that was really exhausting. I think I talked about the weather with my rusher. Come on now, the weather? Overall, I had a nice time here, but I wasn't sure I could ever let my hair down with these girls.

Watermelon: These girls were SO much fun. They were so inclusive and they just oozed sisterhood. What really impressed me was that, unlike most sororities during recruitment who strictly have one PNM to an active, after the first five minutes of the party, the pairs had naturally evolved into groups. My group was me, Mattie (my rusher), Mattie's little Jackie, Jackie's PNM and and Jackie's best friend and her PNM. I thought this was such a nice atmosphere, and much less stressful than a one on one. I left really loving the house. I really hoped I wasn't dropped from this house! I felt like I had such a good connection!

Starfruit: Last, but definitely not least! If you remember, both Rachel and Marie were positive that this was the house they would pledge. If this was true, I was sure I didn't want to end up here with them. We got inside, and I was immediately ambushed my friend from highschool! I was so excited to see her! I had no idea she was in this house! She had told me she was in a sorority, but I never put two and two together. I had a GREAT time at Starfruit, but in the back of my mind, I felt like wanting to pledge the same sorority as Rachel and Marie did not equate to a good situation.

glad you came back to continue your story. after you eat and work on your paper, please come back and post some more!!

I want more!!!!!!

I shall be posting more in several minutes! Hooray!! Who are you all rooting for?

OK, so there is a local right???

Post more it has been way longer than several minutes haha! I am rooting for watermelon and strawberry.

Day 1 Cuts and Drama
 

After we left the Starfruit house, Marie caught up with me and was bantering on and on about how when she became a Starfruit, she would win over all the older sisters and would surely have a position as an officer her second semester. I could not believe the ridiculous things that were coming out of her mouth! I am honestly not one to judge, but this girl was SO cocky. A whole bunch of nasty things occurred to me that I could potentially say, but all I said was “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket – you don’t want to write all the houses off just yet. Anyway, I thought that you thought Strawberry was worthy of you, too.” I said with with a bit of sarcasm, but I was genuinely confused as to why she would write off such a great sorority. At this, she rolled her eyes and ran to find Rachel.

When we got back to the meeting place, my Rho Chi told us we would only be returning to a max of 11 houses. I was a little startled that we would be making cuts so soon, but I realized that Rush would go on forever if we didn’t narrow it down quickly. And anyway, I had a good idea of how I wanted to rank the houses…

• Peach
• Strawberry
• Cherry
• Starfruit
  
• Watermelon
• Pineapple
  
• Cantaloupe
• Mango
• Honeydew
• Plum
• Grape
• Kiwi
• Banana
• Blueberry

I didn't have much difficulty ranking the houses. Luckily for me, there were exactly three I knew for certain I would never want to return to. You might be wondering why I kept Grape instead ofKiwi. Why replace Kiwi, an obviously well respected house, with Grape, a tiny, floundering local? Well, I think in the end, I really wanted to give Grape a fair shot. I thought about certain people in my Rho Chi group and how they might treat a struggling chapter, and I resolved not to be like that. I was determined to give them a fair hearing and experience all they had to offer - because maybe I would thrive in a smaller sorority.

I talked to Jena after I had handed in my card. She had cut the same houses as I had, with the exception of Banana, which she replaced with Grape. Rachel and Mariehad both cut Honeydew, Grape and Mango. Honeydew because they were known as the academic house, apparently, Grape because of their size, and Mango because they refused to be in a "fat" sorority. I couldn't believe the negative things they had to say about all the houses. I said it, and I'll say it again: I never saw ONE "fat" girl at Mango. To me, they looked healthy and exuberant, and I thought that the ones I saw had quite goof bodies (not that it matters at all about weight and size - I'm just trying to be as honest to the actual account of what happened as possible).

As we were walking out of the room, we were talking about our choices again. I mentioned that Strawberrywas my second ranked house, and, Marie said to me, I quote (I'll never forget this:

"Please. It's not like Strawberrywill invite you back anyway. Not after you monopolized so many of the actives. And anyway, they're like, top-notch. You have to be super gorgeous to get in there."

My jaw dropped. So did Jena's. I could not believe how mean this girl was. It was girls like her that made me hate all girls school so much. If this was the kind of girl that was in a sorority, I wanted nothing more to do with the process.

Damn Marie is a nasty little thing! I cant wait to see where all these snotty girls end up! Im still rooting for Peach...and Watermelon!

If anywhere...:eek:

OK, first of all - locals do not have national HQs that will close them if they have numbers issues. That decision is up to their alumnae board and/or the school - they might lose housing but that's not the same as losing their charter, and the majority of alumnae boards realize (and promote) the fact that their group is smaller and more intimate. So I don't think the local can be described as "floundering" in any sense of the word.

But I do know I can't think of any groups with 13 nationals and one local - a local that stays in formal recruitment past the first round, at any rate.

Oh well, we know how the story ends now anyway.

There are actually more than one local at my school, all of which, with the exception of Grape, were thriving. So I mean floundering, not in terms of trying to fulfill a membership quota. Just floundering in terms of being lost in a sea of bigger houses.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmkay.

I don't know of any huge schools that have 14 sororities and several locals, unless you are counting the NPHC groups - and even with that, the school I'm thinking of to make this even semi plausible is hardly huge (unless you went to a one room school) or one of the most competitive in the land.

Methinks someone is on a Creative Writing field trip.