[ZTA zetahunny]

I found this website last spring when my daughter was debating if she should go through recruitment. I first thought about the mother daughter sorority thing as early as the day of my own initiation in 1977, when a group of my closest Zeta sisters talked about it when we were still in our ritual whites. Who would have known that my daughter would be a bit of a rebel and tell me that she didn't know if the sorority thing was for her? The day she graduated from HS, at least five women asked her (in front of me) if she was going to rush. I was feeling how increasingly uncomfortable she was becoming each time the same question was asked. It turned out that once she was on campus during summer school, she decided on her own that she would give recruitment a try. I helped her with picking out dresses and helped her put her resume together to give to rec writers. I had no idea what the implications of being a legacy to two top houses at a competitive school would be. I proudly plastered that information on her resume. She survived rounds one and two, with only being released from 3 out of 15 chapters (Only one was a disappointment), but it was toward the end that she suffered the worst cuts. I left Florida to help another Zeta chapter with their recruitment just to get my mind off her. I returned to FL to be there for bid day. The day of pref she called very disappointed having not been invited to ZTA and a few other favorites, and wanted to drop. Gulp. All I could say was "OK...Are you sure that's what you want to do." I had the biggest frog in my throat and was trying so hard to be casual and just listen. I asked her if she had spoken to her Rho Chi yet and she told me that she would call her next. Moments later, the phone rang again and she said she would get dressed quickly and go to a few Pref parties. (She had been required to go to an academic related Ropes course, in the rain and mud, which wasn't scheduled to finish until preference was underway. It was known that she couldn't attend at least one party due to that event. I had thought that the Ropes course would be the big problem of the day...Not her dropping out of recruitment) She liked two of her three pref. groups and got her first choice of the three. Now a year later, she sounds invigorated and every time we speak on the phone, she sounds like a different girl/woman. The first thing she to me when we spoke on the phone during prerecruitment week was almost what Sally Field said when she won the Oscar. She said "WOW everybody loves me." I don't know why this makes me so happy, but it does. I am so afraid of being called a Helicopter mom, but I do love rush, and I do think being in a sorority offers so much to a young woman. I just get excited about it. If I found a fantastic spa or place to eat, I'd want all my friends, and even strangers to experience it. When you have a daughter, and when she leaves the nest, you just want to make sure she has the tools for the journey. I think being in a sorority teaches a girl so many things. I feel for all you other moms out there. It all works out one way or another, but you still have that little girl in the back of your mind, even though common sense tells you to let her go. Overcoming obstacles is how we learn and overcoming those obstacles and having that experience makes us far more interesting to know. My daughter wants to be a Rho Chi next year. Just can't wait.