With no obvious direction as to how to go through rush, I thought there were plenty of freshmen guys who opted out of summer rush. Well when I went to one of my university's freshman intro camps where freshman meet each other and make early friendships before school starts I soon discovered most every guy rushing had secured an oral bid to a fraternity. Needless to say I was soon wondering what my fate would be. The more I learned, the more I became worried. People were telling me that most fraternities had already filled up their rosters for their coming fall pledge classes...I didn't know what to do.
Well after camp ended our small group leaders (upperclassmen) could tell us if they were in a fraternity or sorority. During camp they had to conceal their affiliation in order to avoid dirty rushing. It turned out my female counselor was a Pi Phi and my male counselor was....well I guess I will give my the fraternity's names of familiar country artists (some I like, and some I don't
). We have ten fraternities at my school:
Garth Brooks
George Strait
Brad Paisley
Randy Travis
Alan Jackson
Trace Adkins
Toby Keith
Billy Ray Cyrus
Tim McGraw
Blake Shelton
Therefore my camp counselor was a
Brad Paisley. I had received some information from them in the mail during the summer and had gotten calls from them. From what I'd heard they seemed like some great guys and I had really liked my camp counselor who made a conscious effort to stay in contact with me after camp ended. I felt like with his connection I would at least have a chance to be a Brad Paisley.
Camp ended with about a week before formal rush started. I was no longer getting calls from any fraternity and my confidence was dropping each day. Me and my roommate hadn't really clicked and I hadn't met many guys that I saw good friendships with. I was really hoping I would find my way into a fraternity but with no summer rush experience, my chances seemed slim.
Then the IFC sent out an email saying there would be a barbeque where all the fraternities would have tents set up to meet and greet PNM's on the grassy knoll by the greek housing. Finally, I thought, I had a chance to meet some guys. So that day I made sure I was dressed nice and made my way over to Greek Row. Well when I arrived, I saw nobody....absolutely nothing. I wondered if I was in the right place, so I walked around in search (keep in mind I still had no idea where anything on campus was) and I think I may have even walked 10 minutes back to my dorm to check the email and directions. Everything was correct so I walked back to where I was previously. This time I saw one tent with two or three guys. I walked over and they introduced themselves to me as members of
Garth Brooks, and one of which was the Rush Captain. It turned out that my roommate from orientation was there too and his brother was also a Garth Brooks. So I talked to them for probably 15 minutes and they invited me back into their house. I went in and got to view their chapter room which I was imprssed with, granted I had never seen anything like a fraternity house before. They handed me some packets and information about their fraternity. I told them I wasn't sure if I wanted to be a big partier and inquired what their fraternity's reputation was. They told me they had a big mixture of guys who partied and who didn't. This sounded good to me, but looking back I realize I probably would have been told by almost every other fraternity.
That would end my contact with any fraternities, as soon after there was a no contact period before formal rush started and ended. Now all that was left for me to do was hope I made some sort of lasting impression on either Garth Brooks or Brad Paisley. Formal rush was on the horizon and I had no bid. My roommate had already secured a bid from
Trace Adkins and he had only hung out with them twice and registered for rush about two weeks before it started. He was socially awkward, not that smart, and not to sound arrogant but not as good-looking as me. Why the hell is he going to be in a fraternity and I might not be. The confusion wouldn't cease anytime soon.