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First round results were supposed to come at 630 am via email. While 9 houses was the max number of parties a girl could attend, I was trying to prepare my daughter for the fact that she might not have a full invite list. I texted her in the morning that if she gets asked back by 5+ she should be happy.
About 7 am I get a frantic phone call: the results were late and she had 9 houses but 3 of her top choices had cut her. And she only had an hour to get ready for her first party. I could hear the negative downward spiral in her voice. Not only had she been cut by April which she had really liked, but also March her legacy house. She didn't really care that January had cut her even though it was apparently a "top" house. But she was not happy about November being on her list.
Honestly I was surprised my house, March, had cut her without ever talking to her. We both knew it was a very competitive house but I reasoned that as a legacy they would at least talk to her in person before cutting her. That one threw us for a loop.
This girl is not used to getting rejected in general so this stung. She took it personal. She wanted to quit.
I gave her the whole speech about a lot of these "top" houses are so selective because they have a lot of in state girls and they have a lot of cuts to make, don't take it personal! I kept telling her it was amazing she got asked back by 9 houses. And to keep an open mind, meet these girls in person and see how she likes them.
Philanthropy Round was spread over 2 days.
Day 1 houses included:
November
June
December
--I thought it was great her first house was the one she cared the least about b/c she could use it as practice conversation. Told her to go in and see if she could meet some girls she could be friends with regardless if she were in their house.
After talking to some of the girls on her floor, she quickly realized how lucky she was to have a full invite list after all. Most of the girls she had met that were also from out of state and none had been asked back by 9 houses. Her attitude quickly improved.
The bulk of her houses were on day 2, so day 1 she had plenty of free time in between parties to call me and keep me updated.
November--they surprised her with how easy the conversation was and the girls she spoke to were actually pretty. She did like that they did a little activity for their philanthropy while they talked. But looking around the room, she said she didn't feel like this was going to be her house. They were still her last choice.
June--"Mom! I love them! They were so easy to talk to and the conversation just flowed, I could totally see myself hanging out with these girls!" Plus they had a little dance party as they were leaving and she loved that. Clearly this house put her mindset back in a positive place.
December--again the conversation flowed easily. Daughter has always been good at keeping the conversation going and is a natural people person. While she felt at ease with the girls she talked to, she said looking around she saw a lot of bigger girls and as superficial as that sounded, it made her concerned about the reputation the house might have on campus.
I tried to tell her about the year we had a pledge class that had a lot of pretty girls and a bunch ended up being total fake b****es so don't just judge on looks.
Day 2 coming....
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