[Calliope]

Sunday was the first official day of rush. My roomie and the rest of my group gathered in a corner of the school cafeteria to get started. I wasn’t able to touch base with Rachel to see what she was wearing. As I looked around the cafeteria, I felt extremely underdressed, and self-conscious. Many of the girls were wearing cute little sundresses (in the middle of February!) with ridiculously high spiked heels. I wasn’t dressed like a bum, but I only had on a wool skirt and a sweater. I already felt like I had made a bad decision and didn’t belong in my stereotyped vision of this world.

Nevertheless, I was already there and I had already paid my rush fee, so I didn’t think it would be a bad idea to go through at least Day 1 of rush. Our Rho Chi handed out our schedule for the evening. We would be visiting:

Gryffindor

Hufflepuff

Slytherin

As we walk through the student center to get to the room where we will be meeting Gryffindor, my heart starts pounding because I can already hear chanting and clapping. I am definitely out of my comfort zone. The doors open and all I see is a row of girls clapping and chanting. We are placed in a single file line, and as we enter the room, a girl takes us on each arm and leads us into the room. My head is just in a whirl. The girl on my left introduces herself, and I barely register her name. The girl to my right smacks me upside the head and tells me to snap out of it. I look over and it’s my cousin! I had no idea she was in a sorority! And she's the Treasurer!

I immediately feel more at ease and allow my escorts to help me work the room. All of the girls seem really nice, but I can’t help but feel that despite my connection to Gryffindor through my cousin, that I just don’t belong here. It feels like a meat market – “what’s your name?” “What’s your major?” “Where are you from?” “What year are you?” “What dorm are you in?” There has to be something more about me that these girls want to know. All in all, I feel like by the end of the party, I’ve met the entire sorority, but I don’t really KNOW them. Time is called, and I don’t think that Gryffindor is the group is for me.