[RushTaleAccount]

It's PREFERENCE I was SO excited because it was the last day of recruitment and hopefully the next day I would be in a chapter! I wanted to call my mom but my phone wasn't working at all as of the morning of day two, which was making me crazy because I couldn't text or call anyone! I prepared myself for the worst, which would have been being rejected from Grape Soda. I remembered that the last two days, my schedule hadn't been ideal so I needed to know there was a chance I had been dropped from them. These parties were each an hour long.

BUT HOORAY! Grape Soda was on my list! I was so excited and my roommate still had her favorite on her list too. We pumped each other up and got ready for the parties. I had been invited back to Pepsi and Mountain Dew as well, thankfully I wasn't going back to Coke because I couldn't handle the anxiety of how girls were acting at that chapter. Our recruitment group had basically been cut in half. A lot of girls had dropped the night before from our group, but two more quit on the spot of looking at their lists. They wouldn't even listen to my Rho Gamma when she told them to give the chapters a chance.

Pepsi- We went into the chapter house and into a large room where everyone was given a pretty flower. The girls circled around all the PNMs (we were sitting in chairs) and started to sing a really pretty song. Then after it was done many of the girls started saying things like "My sisterhood is..." and said memories or feelings. The president and another member talked in the front of the room about what it meant to be a member of their chapter. They sang again, and we went back upstairs. We had cookies upstairs and I talked to a girl I had talked to on day 2. It was the girl who had worked at the entertainment firm. We had a good conversation, but I was with another PNM the whole time I talked to her. I didn't feel that it was very personal, but even a one-on-one wouldn't have probably changed my mind: I just knew this wasn't the chapter for me. I had an open mind but I could tell that I liked these girls but couldn't see myself lounging around all Sunday morning with them in the house. I enjoyed our conversation though.

Mountain Dew- On the way to this chapter, a girl on the bus wouldn't stop talking about how awful she thought Mountain Dew was. She kept saying things like "It's the worst house on campus" and someone asked why. She basically announced to the bus how her sister was a current member of Sunkist and that her sister had told her what houses were "worth joining". Funny how I realized on the bus that if that girl was going to be in Sunkist, which had been my favorite day 1, that it was probably a good thing I had been dropped. We got to the house and the members came out singing a song. Each member called out a name and we walked with them up to the house. For the fourth day in a row, I got called by the girl I was always having great conversations with. Even though we had great conversations, I was a little annoyed because I wanted to get to know more people in the chapter. I talked to her the entire time, and we had another good conversation. I kind of opened up to her and said where I liked her chapter, I couldn't make a decision based off of meeting four people total (and really only talking to three because I talked to the girl on day 1 for five minutes). She told me that she understood why that was a concern and that a lot of the girls were similar to her. She told me that she had a lot of friends in the chapter, and that she wished I could meet her pledge class because she said they were "turning around the chapter" because it had been in a recruitment slump. The fact that she said that though made just-graduated-high-school me a little nervous. I kind of wanted a strong chapter, not an up and comer. I also knew that this girl really wanted me to join and was worried she was just saying other chapter members were like her. They took us into their basement for a ceremony where each girl was given Wishing Rock that looked like a diamond cut in the shape of one of their symbols. We were to wish on it, and the chapter president said even if it wasn't their chapter that it would hopefully bring us what we wanted. It was sweet.

Grape Soda- HOORAY! I was so excited for this preference! We came into the house and everyone looked fantastic. I talked to two girls, the same two as the day before. I was having so much fun talking to the first girl. We had great conversations and she asked if I was going to have a tough decision. I told her that I had three parties that day, and asked her if I could be honest with her. She told me yes, and I told her that I had had my favorite parties with them and that I was so grateful to be back that day. I told her that I thought they were really genuine and that their sisterhood seemed really strong. She said that it was the nicest thing she heard all day. The second girl I talked to was the more serious one again, and our conversation went okay. We went to a large room for their ceremony. Their members that were seniors cried and I really hoped that I would get into their chapter as I knew they were my favorite.
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This day it DID matter what order we ranked the chapters in. I knew I wanted Grape Soda but didn't want to join Pepsi. I wasn't sure about Mountain Dew and wanted to talk to Rho Gamma and I also talked to my mom using my friends phone. My Rho Gamma told me that if I really couldn't see myself at a chapter to not put them down, but that if I did "suicide bid" or didn't max out my options, I wasn't guaranteed a bid. If I did max out, I was going to get a bid. I knew though that I couldn't max out my options because I wouldn't want to be in Pepsi. I decided that since I had only truly talked to one girl in Mountain Dew that it wouldn't be fair to myself to join. But if I'm being honest with myself in hindsight, a main reason I didn't put them as second was because I was scared people would judge me if I joined since many judged the chapter.

So I put down only Grape Soda, hit submit, and waited.