I wasn't going to do this, but ...

[DSTRen13]

Okay, I’m going to do this retro recruitment story thing … please don’t hate me. I was bored and just felt like sharing, I guess. I’ve decided to name the sororities after desserts, because I am also hungry right now.

When I was in HS, all I knew about sororities were the really negative stereotypes of blond girls with big boobs, lots of alcohol, and not a lot of keeping your clothes on. Um, not my thing. All my friends and I were agreed – it was buying your friends, and we were having none of it. My senior year, I visited North Avenue Trade School and the “host student” I was assigned to stay with was a member of an NPC sorority “Cheesecake”. Definitely dispelled the stereotypes, and they were all very nice, but … I had no prior experience with Greek life, and I am not extremely girly. Staying that night in the sorority house, where everything was COVERED in floral print, during the week before IFC/NPC Greek Week, where everyone was talking NONSTOP about strange activities that sounded, well, really stupid, was kinda scary. I didn’t have any hard feelings toward the girls, but it was completely over my 18 y/o head. After my visit, I had decided I wanted to attend North Avenue Trade School, but I was not going to spend the money, or the time (cut my vacation a week short? What was that about?) to participate in Panhellenic Rush. Cheesecake is a whole lot of trouble to make if you aren’t that into it and don’t understand the process.

Once I got to school, I pretty much ignored Greek life. Not many of my friends were involved with it, so it didn’t really have any impact on me at all. I was very involved in AIESEC, an international business org, and it took up most of my time.

My next introduction to Greek life came in the mailbox fall of my sophomore year. I received an invitation to Rush for a local sorority on campus, which I’ll call “Fried Cheesecake”. I debated for a while about going – after all, it was a sorority. But a friend from high school was an officer, and I knew a couple of other girls going. I was intrigued by the fact that they seemed more laid-back and diverse than the NPC groups on campus, and so I decided I would check it out. I missed the first night of their three-night event (AIESEC meeting, as usual), but made it to the other two nights. It was fun, and the girls were nice, but nothing really grabbed me and I was disappointed to learn that their goal was to eventually affiliate with an NPC group (since I had been drawn to them for their uniqueness from the other groups). Fried Cheesecake, while fun and different at first, was more like Cheesecake than I had thought.

To be continued ...