|
Somehow, we I posted Day 3 and 4, Mom's thoughts did not get into the post. I am reposting it so that her comments appear in the chronological order that we intended. Her thoughts are in green, so if you have read the rest, just skip to the green. Sorry for the repeat.
Day 3 and 4
We could get invited back to seven sororities for skit day, but I was a little disappointed when I got my list back and only had six. Then I realized there were a lot of girls who didn’t have a full list, and that it only takes the one to give you the bid and that’s what I needed to focus on. I was asked back to Ariel, Tiana, Belle, Rapunzel, and to my delight Mulan. I also found out I have to go back to Snow White. That was the last house I wanted to visit again and I’ll admit I had a pretty sucky attitude about it at first. I called my mom and threatened to drop out of recruitment all together because that house just made me so uncomfortable and there was a chance that I could have to join it. I realize now how silly and stupid I was acting, but at the time I was scared, stressed, tired and out of my mind. She calmly reminded me that it was my choice, but if I dropped out now, I might never be able to join a sorority again and that I had just as good a chance at becoming a Mulan sister. I went back inside and sat with my Pi Chi group, and was a little freaked out to see girls crying because Snow White had dropped them. I realized that maybe if these girls had liked them, maybe I’d just had a bad experience and I couldn’t let the girl I spoken to first dictate my opinion of the whole sorority.
Mom here: That phone call really upset me. My daughter is generally pretty level headed, but she was making no sense at all! She just said that she had to drop out right then and that she refused to spend another second on the process. She was upset about having to go back to Snow White, and she was also upset about controversy that was swirling around the greek system at her school due to alcohol infractions (primarily, but not exclusively, involving the fraternities) that had gotten a lot of publicity over the past two days. She told me that if she continued with recruitment she would be forever branded a partier. It was difficult to talk her down. I knew that she was exhausted and overly emotional, and I really didn’t want her to make a decision in that frame of mind. She really wasn’t listening to me, though-or if she was, it wasn’t apparent to me. I told her that she only had to spend 30 minutes at each house and that she could do anything for that amount of time. I also told her that she would have plenty of time to drop out of recruitment later, if she truly decided, for rational reasons that it wasn’t for her, but that she was not thinking rationally right now. Also, I explained that while she could always drop out later, she couldn’t “drop back in” if she didn’t go to the parties that day and later changed her mind. She told me she was going to find her pi chi to drop out and hung up on me. I had no idea what she was going to do. Needless to say, I had a somewhat anxious day.
As an aside, I see that many of you find a mother/daughter joint story unusual. We decided to do it this way because I spent a lot of time this summer reading stories on greek chat to help get an idea of what she would be facing. I liked different things about the stories that the PNMs wrote and that the mothers wrote. I found a lot of interesting insights in both perspectives and thought it would be interesting to see a story from both sides. When the mom writes, we never really know what her daughter is thinking and vice versa. Obviously, the experience, while stressful for both mom and daughter, is different for both. We thought that others might also enjoy the joint point of view.
This round was spread out over two days, and on the first day I visited Ariel and Mulan. The skits at both houses were good, but I was in love with Mulan. Their skit was hilarious and the girl I spoke to talked to me about how they have movie nights and sleepovers in the house and just the general day to day things they do as sisters. I really liked that, because most of the other houses only talked about functions they had or other events like that. I knew in my heart this was the place for me, and could totally see myself in this sorority. I liked Ariel well enough and the girl I talked to was really nice and we had a good conversation about Harry Potter, which I love. The skit wasn’t anything super special.
The next day, I was excited to go to the rest of the houses to see the skits, because they’d all been really cute and really funny. The first house on my list was Rapunzel, and I was excited because I’d heard they had a great skit from girls who had been the day before. It didn’t disappoint. My friend from high school rushed me here, and it was great to see her again, but the second girl I talked to there seemed kind of superficial. This was when I realized that maybe I didn’t belong here. I wanted so badly to like Rapunzel because of my friend, but it wasn’t the one for me. The girls here were way too girlie for my taste and there wasn’t a real click with any of them.
Snow White was the second house of the day, and I tried to go in with a positive attitude. I loved their skit and thought it was really funny and creative. I had a much better girl rushing me than during the first round, but I still didn’t think I’d fit in well at Snow White.
Belle was next, and their skit wasn’t nearly as good as some of the others. It was informative, but not particularly funny or entertaining. The girl I talked to was amazing though. You could tell she genuinely loved all of her sisters and she got this light in her eye when she talked about Belle; it was infectious. I still didn’t know if this was the one for me though, because it wasn’t that memorable the day before.
Tiana had a skit themed to one of my favorite TV shows and I had some great conversations. The girls I was with waiting outside had some awful things to say about the sorority, but I didn’t listen to them this time. I met a really sweet girl and we got along really well. I liked this house a lot more than I had the previous day.
So I had a choice to make. Seven had to become five, and I only knew of one sorority that I was positive I wanted to get rid of, Snow White. I genuinely liked all of the others and had no idea who list at the bottom. I narrowed it down to Belle and Ariel as the two I wouldn’t mind cutting. I talked it over with my Pi Chi and in the end, I decided to list Ariel in the bottom along with Snow White. I knew I made the right decision.
|