*Warning: the following is a long, rambling story written by a person who has not yet had her daily dose of caffeine. *
In the summer of 1998, I went to my freshman orientation. Orientation lasted a full day, and during the afternoon, we had several meetings we could choose to go to. I went to the one about sorority rush because none of the others looked interesting. I hadn't really thought about going Greek before that because my mom is very anti-Greek and no one in my family has ever been in a GLO. So I went into the rush information session having absolutely no idea what to expect.
The Panhel exec did a presentation on rush, what to wear, what we could expect, etc. They gave us a registration form and a booklet that defined some of the terms used in rush and had brief profiles of each sorority on campus. I was getting excited until I saw how much dues for new members were. $1200 (can't remember if this was for a semester or a year)
Now I know enough to ask about payment plans, but back then I had no idea that sororities would do such a thing! Heck, I didn't even know what Panhellenic was!
Anyway, I told mom that I had thought about rush and she somehow convinced me that I shouldn't. So, I didn't rush. (My mom has the annoying habit of being right most of the time. I think that's why I listened to her.
)
I moved into the dorms that August. There were 40 women living on my floor and ten of them rushed, including my roommate.
I'm sure some of you are thinking, "Aha! Her roomie convinced her to go Greek!" Actually, it was the opposite. While most of the rushees on my floor were very nice, my roommate was a complete witch. Even though she wound up dropping out of rush and COBing later, her influence was enough to turn me off of Greek life.
Then in my sophomore year, I joined Student Ambassadors. Through that organization, I met a lot of wonderful women who were in sororities. When the president of our organization (whom I have a great deal of respect for) pledge AXO in the spring of our sophomore year, I was finally convinced of the positives of Greek life.
I was also painfully aware that it was too late for me to join.
I didn't have a clue as to how one would go about COBing. I didn't even know that I *could* COB. I also knew that while KU's formal rush isn't as competitive as rush at an SEC school, juniors don't have a prayer of getting a bid. Sophomores do (it's common for each of our houses to take one or two sophs during formal rush), but not juniors.
Eventually I put the whole thing out of my mind and figured that it wasn't meant to be... although I still wondered "what if" every time I drove by a sorority house.
Fast forward to February of this year. I pick up the student newspaper one day and see that a new sorority will be colonizing in the fall! Reading on, I realize that they take women of all levels. It isn't too late after all! Even though my folks ran into some financial difficulties and I only have one more semester in school, I'm still going to go for it. If that doesn't work, then I'll try alumnae initiation.
If you can dream it, you can do it!