Did you C.O.B?

[DigitalAngel126]

Hey all... I was just thinking...I never went through formal rush (recruitment), I went to a constant open bidding event and ended up getting a bid that way.. I was just wondering if anyone had a C.O.B. story they'd like to share... Here's mine:

I had just moved into my dorm at school, freshman year, and I was seeing Sig Kap letters everywhere. I was starting to wonder if I had been placed on some sort of sorority floor.... I found out later that my school didn't have sorority floors, it just so happened that there were a LOT of them in my building.
I got to know quite a ew of them and they were cool girls, but I still didn't want to rush... I didn't want to go greek!!! I didn't have anything against the idea, it just 'wasn't for me'.. (famous last words)...
I went to dinner with about 8 of the girls (6 actives and 2 pledges) and they were trying to rush me there and then.. and I was like no, no, no, no, no thanks (politely of course).
In any case, I got to be GOOD friends with two of their other pledges and they talked me into going to a C.O.B. event.. bear in mind that the ONLY reason I went was because they were making picture frames for the event and I happen to be a picture frame fiend...
So I get there and, you guessed it, I'm the ONLY C.O.B-er there!!! So it turns into The Amy Show. I had also inadvertanly worn sig kap colors, so of course they thought that was SOOOOOOOOOO cool, lol... Well then they were planning on raiding the FIJI house (all in good fun, the guys had a good time too) and I ended up going with them...
You guessed it..Not even two days later (they had to check my grades), I got a bid. They sought me out, sang to me, and begged (jokingly) for me to accept my bid... I wiped my brow and with a sigh said "I suppose", and of course they were like LOL
I got my bid like a week and a half before initiation.. It was bad-a$$... And now I love all my sisters and coudln't be happier that I joined.....


Whats your story??

And to all the Sig Kaps... I got initated on Nov. 9, how cool is that?

Also, for those of you that contemplate organizing COB, I encourage it.. I would never have contemplated joining if I hadn't gotten in that way because when you get in through COB it's usually because a lot of the girls have gotten to know you and they love you and its like THEYRE choosing YOU...It makes you feel special... I know thats how they got me

[AOIIalum]

I was also a COB pledge. I've posted the story a couple of times before but basically I had signed up for formal recruitment and was all set. But my boss at the time ignored my prior request for a reduced schedule that week (that I'd arranged WEEKS prior, no less!) and wouldn't give me the already agreed upon time off for the week. Ended up having to drop out of formal but still got invites from a couple of sororities for COB, went to AOII and accepted a bid from them the next day.

Here's a link to the whole story if you want to read all the details http://130.94.21.174/gcforums/showth...threadid=20708


Christin

[aephi alum]

I know I've posted this before, but here's the short version

I went through formal fall rush, and became convinced of two things: 1. Greek life was for me, and 2. None of the national sororities on campus were right for me. There was a new local sorority on campus holding rush the following week, so I dropped out of formal rush and visited them... and within 5 minutes I knew I'd found my home.

[carnation]

I was COB-rushed by my cheerleading partner's girlfriend's sorority without knowing it! He called me and said that his girlfriend wanted me to come over to their house at 6 that night and cluelessly, I went over and ate with them. (I hadn't signed up for informal after dropping out of formal, didn't know any of the girls besides her, had no clue I was being rushed.)

After dinner, we played Monopoly and my main memory is that they told dirty jokes the whole time. I left and went to a fraternity party and somehow the sorority tracked me down and called me there and offered me a bid over the phone!

However, cheering still took up massive time and the overall timing wasn't right so I declined. That fall when I transferred to Auburn, I went through formal rush and pledged Pi Phi!

[mmcline]

I don't really have a COB story. This past spring we had COB events every week. It always seemed I was the only that ever invited girls. I was recruiting like anything b/c our numbers are extremely low and we need more girls. Anyways, it happens that 2 of the girls that I got to come to every event accepted our bid and we haev 2 new pledges now. One of them works at our gate house, so we all went to give her her bid. She was so cute, she was jumping up and down screaming hysterically b/c she was so happy.

I love COB events. We have done friends night, where we all watch friends together. We also have game nights. My favorite was we lined the hall with white paper and we all did finger painting. Paint got everywhere but it was so much fun to finger paint.

[aprilxo]

I'm sort of unsure where to start at the moment, but I'm sure I'll figure it out as I go I'm warning you, it's looong!

First of all, I chose not to be greek and I knew I had made the right choice. For my first semester. Then I started thinking Sigma Kappa was really cool because I got to know them through my best friend. I got invited to an informal event but for some reason I chickened out at the VERY last minute... which actually leads me to believe now that my reason for not going greek to begin with was a fear of rejection. (can't get rejected if you are the one rejecting first... stupid philosophy in hindsight, but I think it's something important to take into consideration with some independents).

But ANYWAY I started pledging a service sorority where there was always such a turn out that the only fair way to choose their new members was random drawing (If I hadn't been selected it wouldn't really be rejection so that's fitting with my theory there), then realized I wanted to transfer schools and dropped out of that.

I came to a school where the majority of students are male. I'm talking like 5:1--because it's primarily engineering. My roommate was a freshman and the girl across the hall was a sophomore, and they were good friends with another girl down the hall (also a freshman), and all of them had bonded during orientation week before I had even gotten there. Formal Recruitment wasn't completely over, I remember watching the two girls (besides the roommate, who's not going greek.. yet.. haha) going to get their bids. Turns out, the one further down the hall got a bid from Chi O. Even though my roommate had dropped out of formal recruitment, she later got a big from Chi O as well. However, she turned hers down because she's on the basketball team and had a huge time investment with that and wasn't sure about the whole sorority scene to begin with.

So begins my story.
I was walking to class one day when I realized that I was a junior and that if I was ever going to join a sorority, I had better decide whether I wanted to try to begin with. I spent more time wondering if that would be the thing for me than actually going and meeting girls to figure it out.

I found out that one of my friends from highschool was a Chi O at this new school of mine, and since that girl down the hall had become one of my best friends at this new school, I found myself hanging out at Chi Omega quite a bit. They understood that I wasn't interested in rushing, but the ones I knew better commented a couple times that if I ever wanted to join, they could do something about that. (which makes me laugh thinking about it... sounds like the mob making a hit or something)

But anyway

One day I decided, what the hell. I might as well try and see how it goes. So then I was officially being rushed, but things didn't get weird. I went over and ate dinner with the recruitment chair and met lots of more girls from the house, and I never felt 'weird' or out of place, which was GREAT because I always had a high-anxiety problem when I feel put on the spot and for some reason sororities had before seemed to be an exceedingly difficult amount of pressure for me (I'm pretty sure I was just being mental).

And so after waiting a week, I was hanging out at my fiance's fraternity house when a couple Chi O's came over to give me my bid, which I accepted on the spot! which shocked the guys in the room because they thought I hadn't put a lot of thought into it, they just didn't realize how much deliberating I had been doing for the prior weeks. I had spent that entire week anxiously awaiting word from them, which totally made me realize that I WANTED to be a CHI O! I was happy that they tracked me down to give me a bid, and one of the girls was on crutches even (which made me feel bad that they had gone up all the stairs of my dorm only to find out that I wasn't there ) But in the end everything worked out for the best and the girl who handed me my bid (actually, she was the recruitment chair, also the one on crutches!) ended up being my Big Sister later. So it's all one big happy family and it's the second BEST choice I've ever made in my entire life! (the first being to say YES to my fiance'!)

And that's the short version of how I became greek

greek love,
april

[KappaKittyCat]

This is gonna be a little long, but the story's particularly close to my heart.

At the beginning of Winter Term of my freshman year, I re-auditioned for choir and was moved up from the bottom choir to the top one. I was one of only four freshman girls in there, and I didn't know a soul; the rest of the freshmen had integrated themselves fully into the voice department and didn't give me the time of day. My first day of choir, only one upperclasswoman who lived on my floor was very welcoming to me. The rest of them just kind of sat there. Laura and I got to be pals, and when FR time came up, she asked me to go through. I flat-out refused, didn't even let her make her pitch completely. I told her I wasn't a sorority girl and that it wasn't for me. My fencing teammates, many of whom were in FKT, also encouraged me to check out the Greek system. "Only if I can be a Phi Tau," I replied.

The week of FR, I was very curious as to what was going on. I remember walking to a late fencing practice, passing the building where Kappa was having their first round party, and peering in through the windows. I knew some of the girls in there, and I felt kind of left out. On Bid Night I was hanging out at the front desk of my building, in which all the sororities have their rooms. I kept watching girls running by, shrieking, giggling. Thetas wearing yellow shirts that said "Thought Theta" on the front and "Thought Right" on the back were making up silly songs in the hall. DG's wearing shirts that said, "If you had two wishes, what would the other one be?" were ordering pizza. Pretty, dressed up Kappas were holding irises and hugging while a photographer took pictures. I was curious. I felt left out. "But it's a sorority," I thought. Not for me.

Laura was wise and left me alone about it for a long time. She just concentrated on nurturing a friendship, which I welcomed. We had a lot in common. Later in Spring Term, Laura and I had become even better friends. I remember that she'd just gotten a new KKG windbreaker. For some reason, that image took hold of me. I wanted to belong to something, to a family, and I wanted to wear a windbreaker that proclaimed to the world that I was a part of that family. I shoved the thought aside, thinking that just wanting the letters was shallow, anyway.

Kappa was having its Spring Term COBs and Laura finally talked me into going. They were having "Kappa Kappaccino" in the lounge of my building, and I figured I could come and take a twenty minute study break. No commitment. No pressure. I walked in and there were a few other girls I sort of knew and some I recognized, but no Laura. I asked where she was and was told that she was at rehearsal for the spring play, which she was stage-managing. I felt set-up and was very mad about it. I was rude as hell to those girls. I did my best to make them hate me, but they were still kind and gracious and loving to me. (I think Laura probably warned them about me.)

I was about to leave in sheer frustration when some girls playing Pictionary in the corner called over to me. A girl I'd talked to briefly while walking across campus last night said, "Hey, I need a partner!" Elaine and I started playing and winning. It was like we had ESP; each of us figured out what the other was drawing before the image even resembled anything. The others were teasing us that we were cheating, even though we had no idea how we were doing it. The kicker came when Elaine drew a wobbly oval shape with a dot in the middle of it. Without hesitation, I hollered, "A duck in a pond!" I have no idea how I thought of that, but that's what it was. Elaine was shocked. Apparently her dad's the only other person in the world who gets that joke. All in all, I had a very good night that night. When I saw Laura the next day, I said, "You set me up!" She started to apologize, and I said, "No, that's okay. I had a good time."

I'd been home for the summer for three days when my boyfriend of two years broke up with me. He'd been the center of my life for so long that I honestly did not know what to do. I felt like I'd lost my entire foundation. I did my best to move on with my life, but there wasn't really much of a life at home left for me to move on with. I had the usual rebound flings and basicly wandered around blindly all summer, looking forward to returning to school, to some other sort of life. When I did return, I was heartbroken and lonely beyond all belief. All summer the image of those letters on that windbreaker haunted me. I know it sounds crazy, but they did. I kept wondering about Laura and Elaine and everybody else and what they were doing.

I had permission to move in early to do some choir stuff, and who did I run into as I was lugging my stuff up the stairs but Laura. Being sore from spending all day moving in the freshmen, she declined to help me but offered to keep me company. We had a long talk and discovered that we'd had very similar, educational summers. We left a few days later for the choir retreat and bonded even more then. I rapidly became integrated into Laura's group of friends and by the time more COBs came around, I went if only just to hang out with them. By that point, Kappa just seemed an extention of her. I began grilling her on the reasons for joining a sorority. Why couldn't I just be their friend? One thing convinced me: "Anyone can be a friend, but I am tied to my sisters in a special way. I feel for you like I feel for my sisters, and I want to share that with you." SOLD!

I got my bid the night my grandmother died. Again, it was like the rug had been pulled out from under me. The chapter president and the membership chair found me in my pajamas, lying on the floor in the hallway. I didn't even know them that well, yet they stayed with me for several hours while I cried.

When I got home for Christmas the ex-boy called up and asked about what I was doing. He attacked me for joining a sorority (why is it that ex-boys think they can still have a say in your life, especially when they are the ones who dumped you?) and said that I'd been sucked in by a cult-like organization that prayed on the weak and needy. I responded that I'd learned from him that before this, I had no safety net. True friends are the only things that stay constant in one's life, and the events of the past six months had proved to me how bad life is without them. Now I have a loving family that travels with me wherever I go, and they're not going to trade me in on a newer model or leave because I'm too much for them to handle. It's precisely because I'm me that they're going to stay. He really didn't know how to respond to that.

I hit the ground running before I even initiated. I gave my heart to Kappa, and it's returned in kind. This past Fall Term, HQ almost closed our chapter. We were down in numbers and had hit a brick wall when it came to recruiting. There were only six of us, four on campus and two off. The five other members and I fought like hell to keep it open, and we tripled our membership this past year and won the Recruitment Award at our Convention this summer.

It's funny... I was so anti-Greek before I learned what it was about. The biggest thing I've learned is how easy it is to hate something that you don't understand. The hardest thing to do is to keep hating it as much once you've learned about it. If you're not careful, you just might find love where you least expect it.

[Edited 'cuz I forgot to mention...] By the way, Laura turned out to be my big sis. I found out then that Elaine is Laura's big sis and that my friend Melinda, who I didn't even know was a Kappa, is Elaine's big sis. They came up for my Initiation and it was beautiful. I cried during my pledging, my Initiation, my first formal meeting, the last one of the year, the first one after I got back from a semester overseas, and at Convention. I'm such a sap...

Also, I wanted to agree with the above post that said that fear of rejection might play a role in a GDI's insistance that she will not go Greek. I know that's exactly why I wouldn't go. I was afraid that they wouldn't want me. It is a risk, rushing, laying your neck out, and if you're not big on self-confidence, it can be hard. A lot of girls have major self-esteem problems and it'll take a lot to get them to take that risk. That's where good RC's come in, I guess. Just my two cents.

[DigitalAngel126]

the GDI thing is so true... like i said, hadd THEY not told ME that THEY wanted ME, i never wouldve considered....i was lucky, though, in the respect that i had already gotten to know a lot of them from them living in my building..but still, i wouldve been nervous about gettin rejected.

[XiLovin]

I was a freshman at my school in 1998. After a year I had made the decision that I was going to rush. Well, after going home for the summer I ended up staying home. two years later I returned to Southwest as a twetny-one year old. I knew that I always wanted A Xi D. I decided that I was way to old to rush and thought that the time had just passed me by.

Well, in my first class of the semester I met a girl who was an
A Xi D, Alana. She encouraged me to rush but I decided that I would wait until the spring semester because I didn't have enough time to get everything together and turned into the panhellenic. I was pretty bummed but knew that I would rush in the spring. Well, the last weekend of rush goes by and everyone has their new girls. I walk into class on Monday morning and Alana ask me if I still want to wait or if I would be interested in going to COB. I said of course and the rest is history. I went to the house and got a bid and I couldn't be happier.

Oh yeah, Alana and I are best friends and room-mates now.

[DigitalAngel126]

*bump* these stories are great, lets hear more!

[XiLovin]

What is the *bump* thing?

[aprilxo]

That would be replying to keep the message more current... it's "bumping" the message back closer to the top so more people see it... then more people will respond

[DeltaBetaAGD]

These stories are such a great testament of how COB can be such a positive experience for chapters. Some of the best members come from COB!

Thanks for sharing!

[JMUduke]

putting a post so that it bumps the thread to the top of the page

[thetakates]

I COB'ed too! I had signed up for formal rush but somethings got mixed up and I was not able to go through so I was all bummed out. Then a girl I knew in Phi Mu invited me to their rush event. I went and it turned out it was not for me, but then some girls from my floor came up and invited me and my roommate to a COB event. MY roommate decided not to go so I went by myself over there to the Kappa Alpha Theta suite and ended up having a great time! I was then invited to a dinner at Applebees the next night with the girls and then like 2 days later I was extended a bid! I was so happy!

I finally had found a place where I wanted to be. I have to say if I had to do it all over again I would definitely COB again. It was so much better than formal to me because I didnt have to go through groups where I already knew I wouldnt fit in!