[Eirbear]

Saturday finally arrived. It was a football Saturday, so I had early morning rehearsal, which meant I would be late for cuts. Jessica said that she would wait for me to get back. As soon as practice was over, I jogged back to my dorm. Jessica met me at my room and asked me if she could come in. We walked inside, she closed the door, and she told me I had only been invited back to one chapter for Preference--Nessarose. While I was happy I had been invited back and relieved that I didn't have to make a choice for a cut, I was rather sad that only one chapter wanted me at their Preference. Jessica advised that I still keep an open mind about the other chapters, because I would get a chance to rank all four anyway after the party tonight. She said even though I was only going to one Preference didn't mean that my chances were gone for any of the other chapters.

After a football game, a hurried shower, and a changing of clothes into a black dress, it was time for Preference. Our floor met Janet and Jessica at the end of the floor, forced one of the PNMs' boyfriends to take a group picture of us (as we explained..."when girls get dressed up, we have to take pictures"). We made our way to the student union again. Nessarose's party was taking place in the second floor ballroom, and I was going to second round with all the others who had only been invited back to Nessarose (or one party). Therefore, we spent the whole first hour of the night sitting in a couch area of the student union outside the cafeteria with a couple Rho Chi's. Finally, it was time for our round. We lined up alphabetically and headed up the stairs.

We were introduced one by one by one of the sisters, and we were each escorted over to the tables by a different sister. When my name was called, I saw the sister from my section walking over to me. She lead me over to another table and we stood until the sisters sang a song and then we sat down. At the table was the two of us and the English major sister I had met at Open House. We had a really nice conversation and snacked on desert and then everyone was instructed to go stand in a circle. They performed a small ceremony and then we were escorted back out of the ballroom. The hour seemed to have gone by really fast.

Downstairs, we had to line up outside the closed doors of the activities room. We were let in in small groups, assigned seats at various tables, and were handed a card to list the chapters in our preferred order. After thinking for a really long time, I finally wrote the chapters down in my order from most want to least want--

Nessarose
Galinda
Elphaba
Fiyero

I felt pretty good with my list, signed it, and handed it in. On the way back to my dorm room I started feeling a sudden mix of excitement and nerves. What if Nessarose decided they didn't really want me that much after all? What if the Galinda and Elphaba both kept their minds made up that they didn't want me either? What if I only ended up with a bid from Fiyero--whom I hadn't clicked with at all, but they did invite me back to Sisterhood? What if I didn't get a bid from anywhere? I was pretty sure that with all these emotions and thoughts and fears rushing through my head, I wouldn't sleep very well that night. In case you're wondering...I didn't.