So this is going to be the recruitment saga of my “Cousin,” aka long-time family friend. I have been bff with her older sister since 3rd grade and our families are basically best friends, go on vacations together, etc.
She is a freshman this year, and first semester was tough. I was very surprised by Cousin’s reaction to college. College is meant for people like Cousin: she is so enthusiastic, spirited, and involved. I was really disheartened to hear that her first semester wasn’t all she hoped it would be. She said that school was not what she expected, she had not found that “core group” of friends that one usually finds freshman year. She and her room mate get along amazingly, and are each other’s best friends, but felt like they were the only people the other really clicked with on campus. Cousin was sick of fakeness, and people not being involved/wanting to get out and DO stuff. She said that she had tried so many times to reach out and knock on doors, talk to people, but they all keep to themselves and keep their doors closed and are surprisingly quite unfriendly. So she submitted seven transfer applications to other schools.
My mom, who was/is Greek, and I encouraged her to give recruitment a shot—apparently about 60% of women on her campus go Greek. She said she’d do it, but I could tell she didn’t expect to get much out of it. I explained that she could drop out of recruitment and would be able to rush at a new school if she wanted, if she signed her preference/bid card that she couldn’t rush for one calendar year, and if she initiated she could never join another chapter, and that if she transferred, she could request to join if they had a chapter on her new campus, but nothing was guaranteed. My mom and I gave her advice and cheered her on, and she ended up LOVING recruitment!
All her expectations went out the window, and she was very VERY pleasantly surprised by the whole thing and met some great people.
I want to keep Cousin and her campus anonymous. Please do not say what the campus is if you figure it out. I have permission to tell this story, but I promised Cousin that it would be anonymous.
I’m going to use fair/carnival stuff as code names. I don’t know why, I’ve always thought fairs and carnivals were kind of seedy and I don’t really like going to them, but I still find them fascinating, so I think these are pretty fun/funny and entertaining. I almost wish there were more chapters so that I could use some more of the fun things I thought of…oh well!
Funhouse Mirrors
Stilt Walkers
Tunnel of Love
Balloon Animals
Milk Bottle Toss
Dunk Tank
In the Greek system, there are two separate but equally important groups: the PNMs, who rush to aspire to become affiliated Greeks, and the sorority women who are looking for new, outstanding members. These are their stories.
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