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Skit Round
The next morning we were supposed to go to the Panhellenic Office in the student center and pick up our invites. I showed up between two of my classes and found out I’d been invited back to Sheldon, Howard, Leonard and Raj! I declined the invitation from Raj, and was glad that I didn’t have to go to class and face Stephanie. I left feeling incredibly flattered to have been invited back to all four sororities! Wow! That many people had thought I was worth-while, and despite all of the girls rushing had remembered me enough to extend an invitation? I was thrilled! I got on my cell (remember the clunky old Nokias with the interchangeable face plates? Mine was turquoise with glitter. Haha) and called Marti right away. She’d gotten her invites earlier that morning and had been invited back to Sheldon, Howard and Raj. No invite from Leonard? “Well that’s weird” I told her, but she was okay with it, so we kept on with our day counting down until it was time to get ready and go.
I had no idea what was going to be going on with skit night, but Marti and I arrived with bells on. Dress was supposed to be appropriate for church, so I wore black dress Capri pants, a short-sleeve, teal, v-neck blouse and strappy black wedges. I thought I looked pretty cute! We met with our PX groups and did another meet & greet game (I was getting pretty tired of these by then) then headed off to our first party.
Howard was my first party of the night again. I was prepared for the singing and yelling this time, but as I was led in I was still stunned at what I saw. All of the furniture in the room had been removed, and Howard decorations were everywhere including t-shirts that had been strung on clothes line and draped around the room. There were streamers, balloons, pillows and paddles, frames, wall décor, bulletin boards and hundreds of pictures. I was so overwhelmed and yet so taken by how cute, cozy and inviting it looked. I loved it! An incredibly sweet girl picked me up and we talked all about Howard. I got a very good sense of their strong sisterhood and how much they really cared for each other. I was again bumped by Brooke and we spent some more time chatting about Howard while occasionally actives would come and introduce themselves. A little while later the other PNMs and I had a seat in the middle of the room on a pile of cozy looking pillows and floor cushions. The Howards’ skit was a take on Grease. I felt “meh” about the skit itself because I’d seen similar Grease-themed skits done various times in high school and summer camps. But at the end of the skit all of the sisters sat down together, in what seemed like a very impromptu manner leaning on each other, throwing arms around each other and began singing a very sweet song. I found myself surprised to become emotional about it, but many of the sisters were tearing up and hugging each other as they sang. When the song was finished I was “collected” again by Brooke as she and the other Howards sang a peppy goodbye song and led us into the hallway. I was sad to have to leave, but I did run into Marti who had just emerged from the Raj party. She gave me a look that said it all. She had not liked the Raj party. And I gave her a look that let her know she would love the Howard party. We had a little bit more silent conversation (Don’t you love that about your best friends? You don’t even have to speak words to know exactly what the other is saying.), and then parted ways with our PX groups to get to the next party.
The next party I attended was at Sheldon. Their room didn’t look too different than the night before. I was paired up this time with an amazingly beautiful and perfect-seeming Sheldon with whom I had a great conversation about the Big/Little program. She raved about all of the gifts that the Littles were showered with and got really excited showing me gifts that she’d given and received that were around the room. The next girl I talked to was very friendly and informative and we walked around the room as she showed me various pictures of activities and philanthropy events. She too went on and on about the gifts that Littles and members in general gave and were given. Then I made a definite rushee mistake. We had walked over to a part of the room where there were many items with the Sheldon letters on them, and I asked, “So what exactly do the Sheldon letters stand for?” She very politely told me that that information was reserved for initiated members only, and I felt slightly abashed. At that time I literally had no clue about sorority secrets. I didn’t know that the letters and symbols and colors had secret meanings. I don’t know what I thought it all meant, but I certainly didn’t know that it was supposed to be a secret. Oops! (Marti would later tell me that she had meant to tell me this. Thanks Marti.) But the kind active moved the conversation on nicely and we kept talking. We were approached several times by actives who said they “just had to come and meet me!” Really? Me? I also had the opportunity to talk to Sarah Beth and Claire for a bit before the skit started. The Sheldon skit (though I won’t get into specifics because I think that would be a giveaway) was enthusiastic, loud and fun and I enjoyed it. I was disappointed that it didn’t trigger any emotional responses, and I didn’t get a sense that their sisterhood was as strong as Howard’s. I did however leave feeling excited about the idea of becoming a Sheldon.
I didn’t see Marti between parties again, so I moved with my group to the next party which was Leonard. Again there were loads of girls in the room, but we were quadruple-rushed, and again I couldn’t get a word in edgewise because of the three other PNMs. The first Leonard we talked with started by asking the same questions we’d been asked before (What’s your major? What did you do this summer? How are your classes?). I tried not to think much of it because I knew that she didn’t know us, but by this time I’d already been asked these questions quite a bit. I was ready to start talking about sisterhood and what life as a Leonard was like. The conversations never got there though, even after the bumping started. It became apparent that the other three PNMs at my table were not interested in Leonard and had decided to converse about other things – fashion, celebrities, etc. My attempts to bring the convo back were made futile, majority ruled. By the end of the conversation period I found myself frustrated and of the opinion that I would have rather spoken with an alumni one-on-one than be stuck trying to talk over three other PNMs. Going into the skit I was quite annoyed about the way things were going, but I tried to clear my head and watch the actives as they presented their award show themed skit. I don’t remember much about it, but I do remember that rather than all of the sisters singing together they had two girls singing a duet. And after being so impressed by the Sheldons’ and Howards’ group songs I was disappointed not to see more of a display of sisterhood from Leonard. The songs they sang were good and quite touching, but without rest of the Leonards supporting them on stage the performers just seemed more like good singers rather than sisters. I did notice that a PNM sitting a few chairs down was crying, and it made me feel kind of bad for not feeling like I wanted to cry. I hate to say it, but my overall experience made me ready to leave. On my way out no one said goodbye to me, and I left feeling like I’d been cheated of a chance to see the sisters interact with each other as a group in the way that Sheldon and Howard had.
Back in our PX groups we took the time to rank our favorites in order, with the last one being the group we’d prefer not to return to for Pref. I ranked as follows:
1.Howard, Sheldon
2. Leonard
Marti, having attended Howard, Raj and Sheldon ranked Sheldon and Howard as her first choices and Raj as her last. We left for the night (but not before another meet & greet game with our PX groups!) and went home to discuss what our nights had been like. Marti had enjoyed the Howardparty, though not as much as I had. She had loved the Sheldon party more than I had (she was particularly smitten with the Big/Little program and all the gift giving/receiving that ensued). And that’s when Marti said something that has stuck with me since that night. She said, “You know, it seems to me that if you want stuff you become a Sheldon, but if you want sisterhood you become a Howard.” Those words struck a chord in me and though the conversation moved on I kept hearing those words over and over again in my head. What did I want? Did I want letters and stuff or did I want sisters? (Note: This is not to say that the ladies of Sheldon did not have a good sisterhood (they did), or that the ladies of Howard didn’t have “stuff” (they did), those are just the characteristics that stood out to me during the craziness of recruitment.)
We went on to discuss the Leonard and Raj skit parties. I vented my aggravation about Leonard and of course Marti shared my frustration in the way that best friends do. She went on to tell me that the Raj party wasn’t good at all. She said that the girls were again painfully quiet and that she had a really hard time talking to them. (That was really saying something. Marti’s the kind of gal who never meets a stranger. She can strike up a conversation with a brick wall.) She said that the skit, while cute in theory had come off poorly in practice because the girls just didn’t seem like the skit-type. She did say that they seemed to love each other and that she was sure that there were girls in her group that really loved the Rajs.
We fell asleep excited about getting our invitation the next morning. The next evening would be Pref…
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