Ok! I've sent my boyfriend home and I now have a few moments to conclude my updated story.
Right, so I had left for England with
Saltimbanco's Alumnae Initiation forms in my possession and a promise that they'd get right on it when I returned to the US.
But that wasn't meant to be.
My e-mails went unanswered and there was nothing I could really do short of show up on someone's doorstep. LOL The Regional Coordinator
did reply to one of my e-mails in a general "hey, how's it going" fashion, but she never said anything about the AI process, even though I gently asked her about how we could go about picking up where we left off.
I returned home from England eight months ago and I never did hear back from anyone at
Saltimbanco.
So what was I to do? I thought about it quite a bit and decided that I didn't want to give up. Though, I was faced with the prospect of having to start alllllll over again.
I reviewed the list of sororities which offered AI and wasn't sure where to start. I mean, I wanted to pursue a group I really believed in...not just one I thought would take me. There are some really nice sororities which do AI, but only a small handfull which I felt I would consider.
But here's the weird thing, the ones I really liked were also the ones I never "really" considered before because I saw them as these prestigious organizations that I probably would never have a chance to be a part of. I guess I just thought I shouldn't even consider them because, given my personal experience with members and chapters, I probably wasn't "good enough". I know that seems kind of dumb for an adult to say, but opinions formed in the youth are sometimes hard to break.
Nonetheless, I decided to check into a couple more. One of those groups,
Alegria, did AI but had a particular policy I needed some clarification on. Someone from
Alegria HQ responded to me and answered my question in a positive direction. She also forwarded my e-mail to a Regional Coordinator in my area. That person e-mailed me right away to introduce herself. Wouldn't you know it, it so happens that this person and I happend to be "aquaintances" of sorts! Anyway, she was very positive about AI with
Alegria and was eager to pass my name around to alumnae in my area. Cool!
The
Alegria Regional Coordinator put my name forward to the Chapter Advisor of one of the universities in town. That lady was very excited and very positive to hear about my interest. Right away she was asking me if I would be interested in helping out the chapter and so on. It seemed like things were already moving along.
However, as AI efforts normally go, I didn't hear from anyone for many weeks.
Nearly three months later, I followed up with the Chapter Advisor again. The poor Chapter Advisor was having an overwhelmingly busy semester and she just couldn't find a good event to invite me to.
So I waited.....and waited.
I never heard from her again.