A "Seasonal" Recruitment...Retro Style

[anncarrollton]

I attended small liberal arts school in the South. There are 4 sororities and 4 fraternities on campus, and while that seems small, recruitment is fairly competitive. Tradition held that there were 3 stronger sororities and 1 weaker one, however, 2 sororities kind of “alternated” being the weaker ones. This changed in later years, and the “weaker” chapter continues to struggle to this day. This story takes place in the early 90’s, and recruitment was held the first full week of classes during fall semester. Despite the early recruitment date (and it was still called Rush back then), there was plenty of time for tent talk. Freshmen moved in a week before upper classmen and there were plenty of rumors and stories circulating, even word that two of the sororities’ current presidents had younger sisters who were going through recruitment.
Since there were 4 sororities there are 4 seasons, we’ll simply name them after the seasons:
Winter
Spring
Summer
Fall
Now, a little bit about me. I was from a really really really small town. There were under 100 in my graduating class. I had been a major geek in high school and had somehow “butterflied” over the summer and was suddenly pretty and self confident. I had not had very many friends in high school and honestly went into recruitment with the idea that if I couldn’t make friends in high school, at least rushing might provide me the opportunity to “buy” them. It sounds so silly now, but at the time, I really wanted some kind of guarantee that I’d “belong” somewhere. I knew that I wanted to join a sorority, but I had no idea how recruitment or sororities actually worked. I didn’t have any recommendations and I honestly didn’t have a clue!
But I was there, at college, finally comfortable in my skin. I had gone through orientation, met my Resident Advisor, met girls on my hall, met my insane roommate, and I was ready for rush to begin. While the various sororities weren’t allowed to reveal their affiliation, there were no restrictions on talking to people at this point (those didn’t start until everyone “affiliated”). A childhood friend called me and invited me down to her room to “talk”. Turns out she was roommates with a girl from one of the sororities and they lived on the sorority hall (there weren’t any houses). I ended up meeting a lot of those girls that night, but had NO clue as to which letters they belonged to. I knew however, that I kinda liked them and might want to be where they were.
Finally, it was time for recruitment to begin. We all were assigned Rho Chi groups. I’ll never forget that I was a “Gamma Giraffe”. We had to Rho Chi’s and were all grouped based on our place in the alphabet. I was immediately not in love with several of the girls in my group. One of them came in a near-formal dress to our first meeting (when we were supposed to be casual). I felt really out of place in my khakis and nice top. I didn’t look bad, but I sure felt out of place. I was afraid that I had already messed up, but then I saw more girls dressed more like me. That girl, we’ll call her Beth, was from a certain town where all of the girls were Falls. Every girl who had gone to our school from that town ended up in Fall, and that is where Beth was sure she was going to go. Another girl, who had long beautiful curly hair, Careen, was quite sure that she was going to be a Winter.
I felt so behind! I didn’t know anything about any of the groups. I was pretty sure that I’d be let go by all the groups the first night at that point, but off we went to our first night.

[sceniczip]

Yay Fall! Always my favorite season Followed by Spring, then Winter, then Summer

[beccaminister]

Fall is my favorite season too...Go Fall!

[anncarrollton]

Well, at least 2 people are following, so I'm going to go on and post Part 2...

The first night of Rush was known as “Information Night”. We would be going to each sorority’s “room”, and we would be told about the group. Not all of the members would be there, rather just the President, VP, Treasurer, and Pledge Educator. Basically, you’d go into a room sit on the floor and the 4 people would give you the “basics” about that sorority: Name, Mascot, Colors, Year of Founding, Basic financial info, and a quick overview of pledging in that group. Our order was: Winter, Fall, Summer, Spring.
First we went to Winter. Their room was so beautiful. I loved their colors. They were a version of my high school’s colors, so I immediately thought of all the clothes I already had in those colors. Their mascot was a favorite animal of mine and I had jewelry in that shape. I was very excited. Their room was so pretty. They had a beautiful fireplace and what seemed like Laura Ashley décor. I remember looking at their composite though and thinking, “oh, you have to be blonde and super pretty to get in here” and being very disappointed. I was completely in love with Winter!
Then we went to Fall. I did not like their colors at all and their mascot seemed creepy to me. I think about that now and think, “How silly”, but it was my first impression. Beth was so excited when we went into the Fall room. She just beamed. She was extra-bouncy and attentive in that room. I remembered them saying something about being old, and I kind of liked that. But in retrospect, each group we went to claimed to be old or first or older or something, so maybe it was just a thing there. Anyway, they had a very pretty room, but not as pretty as Winter. It just seemed really really dark in there.
Then it was off to Summer. I walked into the Summer room and kind of gasped a bit when I realized that one of the girls I had met at Jill’s that night was the president. Which meant that Jill’s roommate was a Summer. I was very excited to finally know this information. Their room had one of my most favorite colors in it, so I really liked it. The emphasis of this group seemed to be on Scholarship and Sisterhood, which was something I wasn’t expecting. Yes, I was expecting the sisterhood thing, but for a group to be talking about academics as something they emphasized? The geek in me was suddenly very interested.
Finally, we went to Spring. Their room seemed sparse for some reason. I later found out that they were still kind of new to campus and they had replaced another sorority. But still, my first reaction to the room was, “Where is all of their stuff?” Their colors were ok, they shared a color with Fall, but their flower was different. I liked their flower and their mascot, but I was not blown away by my first impressions here. Still, I paid attention and listened carefully, as this was a good opportunity to get information.
We were finally finished with “information night” and our Rho Chi’s encouraged us to write down our first impressions before we got caught up in talking about things just yet. They also told us that we could rank them “For now” and for ourselves just so we had an idea of where we put the groups based on first impressions. I was glad that these weren’t official rankings, but by the end of the night, this is where I stood:
1. Winter
2. Summer
3. Fall
4. Spring
Then we went back to our dorm rooms. That night all of the sororities went into the back yard of the dorm and “serenaded” us. I tried to find the people I had met. I loved the song that Winter sang, kept humming the one from Fall, smiled all through the one Summer sang, and laughed though Spring. I remember being very impressed at how well all of the groups sang thought. Then we all waited a couple of days before “First Round” parties. We would each get to attend all 4 “First Round” parties, so there was nothing to worry about yet!

[TigerOwl]

I'm rooting for Summer with Scholarship and Sisterhood!

[qbt1990]

yayyy! keep updating!

[twinkle555]

Im reading!! GO SPRING!

[baci]

enjoying your down-to-earth story!

[anncarrollton]

I remember so clearly exactly what I wore to “First Round”. I wore khaki colored jeans, a cream top, and this really pretty blazer. I remember that blazer…it had some sort of Aztec-y print.(remember, this was the early 90's) It was different, but not too different. I thought it was a good choice. I also had the unfortunate pleasure of having a hard-to-pronounce last name that no one could get right. I had a cute little saying made up to help people remember how to say it. At least I thought it was cute. Maybe I really was a huge dork though.
Our first party that night was at Winter. This time the groups each held their parties in different rooms on campus. This one was in a multi-purpose type room in one of the upper-class dorms. I remember being extremely nervous and looking around seeing what everyone was wearing. Beth was wearing a SUIT—a suit with a skirt and heels. She looked like she was going to a job interview. Careen was wearing a cute dress. Others were dressed more like me—casual with a dressier touch. Anyway, there we stood at Winter and we could hear them chanting and singing outside the doors and then our Rho Chi’s banged on the door and in we went. I was completely overwhelmed. A Winter grabbed me and took me over to chat. Her first question was “Did you make that jacket?” and I answered no, and then I realized she had been making fun of me. My heart sank a little bit as Winter had been my favorite from the first night. After that, I got asked a lot of “what did you do this summer” questions, and one girl turned her nose up when I said that I had worked. But the I mentioned that I had travelled to Hawaii and LA, and suddenly she was interested again. I still was very interested in Winter and hoped that they liked me enough to invite me back. Careen looked like she fit in perfectly among the Winters. I remember thinking, “She’ll be a winter for sure”.
The next party was at Fall. They screamed and chanted and sang at us as we came in. I still remember one of those songs! I had learned my lesson about talking about work, I thought, so I didn’t mention it there, but I did mention my trip to Hawaii and LA. Somehow it came around to why I had gone to LA (which was for a national speech contest), and they introduced me to someone who had done the same thing. I thought that was a pretty good thing, they had found someone who shared a common interest with me. But then they asked me about my last name and I said my cute little saying and they looked at me like I had 3 heads. I guessed I had screwed things up here, but I hoped that my connection with that one Fall would be good. Beth seemed to be really having a good time at Fall, talking to all the people she knew from her home town. She had a huge grin on her face and really looked like she belonged. I was happy that she was finally getting to talk to all of her friends, but I was a little jealous that she and Careen seemed to be doing so well and I seemed to really be screwing up.
Next we went to Spring. Their chanting was not as loud and they kept singing the same song over and over and over again. I remember not being impressed with the room they were in, but later found out that the room wasn’t their fault…it had been assigned by Pan-Hellenic. I was really surprised when I went into the room and found Tara. She and I had gone to middle school together and had gone to church together as teenagers. I was so excited to see her. I squealed and she squealed and we hugged and then she blew off her “rotation” and showed me all around the room introducing me to everyone. It was so good to actually KNOW someone and not have to teach anyone how to say my last name. Tara was happy to see me too, she said that she had heard I was rushing and wanted to talk to me but couldn’t and was so glad I was there. I left Spring feeling pretty good, even if my first impression hadn’t been so great.
Finally it was on to Summer. I was pretty tired by this time having been chanted and sung at and talked to for a while. But, I knew that I’d see Jill’s roommate Marie there, so I was pretty excited. We walked into their room and it was covered in their color and their mascot. They were singing and chanting and smiling and even though we were their last party of the night, they seemed pretty glad we were there. Marie was the first to grab me and she and I talked a lot. She re-introduced me to the president and then to some other girls. When they found out that I had worked at McDonalds over the summer they introduced me to two other girls who were McDonald’s managers. When someone asked my about my last name, I hesitantly told them my cute little way of remembering it and they all thought it was great. They called me by that version of my name for the rest of the night. I left Summer on a high. I had such a good time there!
Again our Rho Chi’s encouraged us to write down our impressions before talking to each other and then told us we needed to rank our choices, and that we’d only be able to return to 3 Sororities in the next round of parties. My rankings at the end of the night were:
1. Summer
2. Winter
3. Spring
4. Fall
Then it was time to wait until my next appointment with my Rho Chi to find out if I had made any of the cuts. I was pretty much convinced I’d be let go from recruitment after First Round parties, but was hoping that things would go well. In the meantime, I found out that the girls next door to me on the hall were the younger sisters of the presidents of Winter and Fall. I couldn’t believe they were roommates! A lot of girls on my hall started really kissing up to those two after that, but I didn’t. I did go talk to them once or twice. I also chatted with my RA a bit. She was pretty nice, but I knew she was in one of the groups so I was careful about telling her too much. My crazy roommate continued to be crazy, and classes kind of got going.

[WVU alpha phi]

I'm rooting for summer, my favorite season!

[33girl]

Winter sounds awful and snobbish...why on earth did you rank them #2 after being treated like that?

[Tropical_Dancer]

this is a great story, I'm definately rooting for summer then spring then fall then finally winter.

[honeychile]

I kept hoping that she'd say "Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall..." which only proves that I'm a geek, too, I guess.

Glad that you didn't let one person sour you on the whole sorority. I made the mistake of doing that.

[tri deezy]

Originally Posted by honeychile

I kept hoping that she'd say "Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall..." which only proves that I'm a geek, too, I guess.

I've had the song stuck in my head the whole time I've been reading this so far. "All you have to do is call and I'll be there... You've got a friend." Haha

[anncarrollton]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Winter sounds awful and snobbish...why on earth did you rank them #2 after being treated like that?

I guess it was mostly because I had loved them so much the first night. I didn't want to let one snobbish experience keep me from liking the whole group. They did fall in my rankings though.

Thanks for reading...i'll post more tonight