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Our rush advisors told us the heaviest cuts would come after theme parties. Waiting for pref invitations had to be the most nerve racking of days. I believe they were available at noon; trying to get through morning classes was almost impossible. When I’m nervous, I cross my legs and shake my suspended foot. And I mean, it shakes like a five on the Richter scale. One of my classes was in an auditorium, and as I sat shaking away, a guy I didn’t even know reached over and grabbed the offending foot. Uh, sorry.
We could accept two invitations to pref. If there were no invites, we would be given an envelope that contained a note of regret. I remember opening the envelope very slowly because I was so afraid it contained “the note”…but it didn’t! I had invites to Donna Summer, Village People and Heat Wave.
So, the Commodores had cut me! Actually, I was surprised I had gotten as far as I did with the Commodores because I knew I really wasn’t a good fit. I wasn’t too hurt; besides, I had invites to my top two!!
Accepting the invites to Donna Summer and Village People was easy; regretting the invite to Heat Wave was hard. It really was. They were sweet girls and I wished them well, but I was so concerned they were going to fold. Feeling a genuine twinge of sadness, I circled the regrets option on the invite and handed it back to the Panhellenic representative.
I didn’t see Gouda arrive to collect her invites; I did, however, see her leave. Her exit was dramatic, prefaced with a scream…a blood curdling scream as though she had been stabbed through the heart. In a way, I guess she felt like she had been.
No surprise here: Donna Summer had not invited her to pref.
All eyes turned in her direction and silence fell over the room as Gouda threw her envelope on the floor and ran through the nearest exit. Our rush advisor ran after her, as did Swiss who gathered up the purse and windbreaker Gouda had left behind. Activity in the room resumed, but I think the air seemed charged with even more nervous energy than before. No doubt, girls who had not yet opened their envelopes were probably having heart palpitation after seeing Gouda’s reaction to not getting an invite to a sorority she wanted. Even though it wasn’t announced, everybody knew that could be the only thing to cause such an outburst.
Swiss returned about five minutes later, shaking her head as she approached me and a couple of other girls from our rush group. Gouda, she said, was in the ladies room completely inconsolable. She did have an invite to at least one pref party but chose to drop out of rush, as did a few other girls in our group.
I felt bad for Gouda. I know she should have handled herself better during Rush, but I also know how MUCH she wanted to be a Donna Summer. Even today, after all these years, I sometimes find myself thinking about her. Does it still hurt to talk about it? Does she have a daughter, and if so, how did she feel about her going through Rush?
Pref parties were tonight. Swiss was going to Donna Summer and Abba.
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