Actually, scratch that...I have a bit of time for pref before work
The day before
Pref, I was so nervous to see which sororities I got back. I kept thinking to myself about what I would do if I didn't get
Phish Food...part of me thought I should just drop out of Recruitment on the spot, and the other part of me thought I should at least give
Peanut Butter Cup a chance.
I got all dressed up (I had this fabulous silver, one shoulder dress and felt AMAZING) and went to meet my Rho Chis. She handed everyone their schedules and I looked at mine nervously. Thankfully, I saw two chapters:
Peanut Butter Cup
Phish Food
I was SO thrilled to have
Phish Food on my schedule, especially after a somewhat bland Round 3 conversation-wise. I put my smile on and headed to my first Pref party.
Peanut Butter Cup was the first on my schedule. There were so many girls in line who I could tell didn't want to be there. One particularly snobby girl from my Rho Chi group (who ended up in
Half Baked) was sitting near me; she looked disinterested--purposefully so--during the entire party. Judging by the empty seats at the table I was sitting at, I figured many girls had actually done what I considered: dropping out of rush once they saw only
Peanut Butter Cup on their schedule. Overall, I thought
Peanut Butter Cup did a good job with Pref. I talked to a girl I don't think I had talked to before (at least, I didn't remember talking to her), and she was pretty awkward. We didn't hit it off at all. She did, however, say she had heard a lot about me and they were absolutely thrilled that I had come back for Pref. The girl I had met during Round 1 also came up to say how pretty I looked and how glad she was to see me back. I don't remember the ceremony at all--I just remember being anxious to get to
Phish Food.
I really loved the set-up at
Phish Food. I was sitting at a small table with only the active I talked to. I had never met her before, but clearly someone had done a good job putting us together: I ADORED her. She was beautiful, I loved her dress (
Phish Food, like most if not all other sororities on campus, wore black on Pref), and we had so much in common. She was one of the few Econ majors I met during rush, so we talked about that for a long time. She gave me class recommendations, talked about her experiences abroad, and then talked about me for awhile too. Needless to say, I loved her and felt really great about the conversation. The ceremony was also very nice. I'm not an outwardly emotional person, but I definitely felt more of a connection to
Phish Food's ceremony than I did at
Peanut Butter Cup . As the girl I had been talking to led me out the door, I knew exactly what to do.
Until I ran into my Rho Chi. She asked if I needed any advice, and I realized I did. I knew, unconditionally, that I wanted
Phish Food. However, I also hadn't thought about whether I would be suiciding or not. I knew I didn't belong in
Peanut Butter Cup. Although they had all been very sweet and I met a couple girls I liked, they just weren't for me. I appreciated that they didn't care about how they were perceived on campus or what other people thought of them, but to be quite honest: I did care. I didn't want to have a label put on me for my 4 years in college just because of an organization I joined. It's not that
Phish Food had a great reputation on campus either, but I felt a real connection to the girls there that I didn't feel at
Peanut Butter Cup.
I talked to my Rho Chi about suiciding. The rule at my school is that you are guaranteed to get a bid if you make it to Pref. So, if I didn't receive a bid from
Peanut Butter Cup, I would very likely end up in
Phish Food. My Rho Chi was very honest with me about this. She asked me if I thought I would get a bid from
Peanut Butter Cup...I was pretty certain I would, especially after the gushing from the actives I talked to during Pref. So it all came down to this: if I
didn't receive a bid from
Phish Food, would I rather be in
Peanut Butter Cup, or nothing at all?
My final decision was based on the fact that I couldn't imagine myself not participating in all the bid day activities as my friends all had an amazing time with their new chapters. As my Rho Chi put it to me: "Worst case scenario: at least go, get the free shirt, and then make a decision after that." I agreed, and I filled out my bid card:
Phish Food
Peanut Butter Cup
I'll tell y'all about
Bid Day tonight!