So as the first semester of my freshman year came to a close, I had gotten over the fact that I wasn't Greek. I had made some friends finally that I was starting to hang out with consistently and a general sense of belonging. After Christsmas break, I was back and hade made even more friends and had a new and better job that didn't require me to work weekend nights. It seemed like I finally found some order in my life. Then one day I got an email from my school's Greek life department advertising IFC Spring Rush. Truth be told I didn't even know there was a spring rush until this email...I was pretty out of the loop on Greek life. I wanted to be over thinking about a fraternity but this lingering thought in my mind to give it a try. I consulted some of my friends in sororities and they told me that a couple of fraternities do a spring rush and
George Strait is usually pretty serious about it.
The George Straits I had met through the year did seem like good guys, and I still had a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth from Brad Paisley. I had learned that these guys usually took big fall pledge classes, but this fall had taken 15 less than their usual quota. I also learned that only one guy got a bid from them during formal rush that hadn't secured an oral bid prior to. There was an interest form one could fill out if they wanted to meet with the George Straits for Spring Rush. The IFC also had a very informal info session on what to expect for Spring Rush. Soon after I submitted my form I got an email from the George Straits saying they were having a cook-out in front of their house and they'd love for me to come over.
So that day I mustered up the courage to head over, wearing my some casual but fratty attire. There were about 6 or 7 other guys who were rushing in the spring. I ended up talking to their president, rush chair, and several actives including some that I already knew. I had some awesome conversations and enjoyed some food and also payed corn throw and some other stuff. They were just a really impressive set of guys who seemed to have their act together. The only thing I didn't really like was that they frat bashed some of the other fraternities. Even then, despite the fact I was there for three hours, it seemed so much less. I loved my time spent there and could see myself as a George Strait. They told me they would contact me if they made any decisions about their spring class and if they had any more rush events.
Well days went by and I heard nothing. I was beginning to wonder what the deal was. I began to realize something wasn't right and the deadline for when a fraternity could sign a guy for spring rush was the next day. Then finally I got an email saying that George Strait had decided that they were not going to take a spring class this year, but greatly encourage me and the other guys to rush as sophomores and we could hang out with them more then.
Needless to say I was disappointed but not heartbroken. I wasn't as emotionally invested this time around and even though I greatly enjoyed my one time hanging out with them and would have loved to be a George Strait, I couldn't be too upset. I figured they had liked me and just decided that they didn't want to take a small pledge class of 3 or 4. They said they would keep in contact with me if I still wanted to rush a sophomore...maybe then I'd be a George Strait or heck maybe I'd find another fraternity I clicked with even better. I was a little over this whole Greek thing and was beginning to wonder if I was coming off as desperate to be Greek...truth be told I really just wanted to find some good guy friends and party. I had met plenty of girls but hadn't formed really any close friendships with any guys. I had four or five really great best friends from high school that I'm still best friends with now. I wanted to have that group of brotherhood here in college and I knew a fraternity was a great outlet for that. I would think about it more if I wanted to rush for a third time throughout the rest of the semester, but when summer came around I knew I wanted to do it. I registered again for fall rush and would not be an idiot this time. I was going to make sure I did as many summer rush events as I couuld...so the final chapter of the story will finally be completed tomorrow!
