|
Day 4, Pref:
I came into Preference Day a bundle of nerves, worrying if the house ranking the night before had been the right thing to do. Should I have ranked WAFFLES as one of my top two instead of CHEESECAKE? Would WAFFLES have dropped me were I to do that? So many doubting questions buzzed around my head. This process was so important to me, and I really wanted to get it right.
Getting my schedule for the day, I saw on it BROWNIE and CHEESECAKE. I wanted to scream. Yes! They both wanted me back, BROWNIE especially.
I don’t want to say too much about the pref ceremonies, especially as I’m not sure how much is ritual, and how much is just added touches. Either way, both ceremonies were absolutely beautiful, and both made me cry.
I had CHEESECAKE first, and coming out of the preference ceremony, I felt strangely light. This was the house that I wanted. The former, non ritual part of the party had us sitting at candlelit tables, talking in hushed tones. The girls were perfect, the ceremony touching, and I knew that I didn't even have to make a choice. They were it.
In-between our two preference ceremonies, we sat in one of the fraternity houses. Obviously this was the day that the air conditioning in the house stopped working, so to say that we were hot would have been a understatement.
Two hours later, I got up from my place on the floor and made my way over to my second preference ceremony. I wasn't nervous. Why should I be? I knew that I had found my home at CHEESECAKE, so the ceremony at BROWNIE wasn't anything to be worried about, just a nice added extra.
Oh my gosh. I'm glad that I came in relaxed, because I loved BROWNIE to pieces. In the part of the party that wasn't the ritual ceremony, we sat on little tables and I talked to my FAVORITE girls that I had met in BROWNIE during recruitment. The sisters not talking then brought around little plates with an assortment of desserts on them. I was looking for a sisterhood, not a patisserie, but holy heck! There was a chocolate covered strawberry, a mini brownie (very fitting!) a fruit pastry, and a cookie with my name and the sorority's letters iced on it. I almost wanted to run outside and grab my phone, just to Instagram it. I never wanted to forget this moment. Talking to the final girl at the house, I laughed so hard that I snorted. Embarrassing? Maybe. But I loved it. Stepping out of the house one final time, just as the door closed, I burst into tears. I was so tired, but so happy, and I finally knew what my choice should be.
After a long speech about ranking and FERPAS (or some other acronym) we had to line up in a huge snaking line in order of our last name. Finally, I picked up my ranking sheet and a bid day tee.
I ranked:
1. Brownie
2. Cheesecake
For the first time, I ranked without a doubt in my mind. While I would be happy in either, Brownie was home.
|