One more before the real thing...

[AnatraAmore]

Okay, so I can’t resist… what’s one more, right? And Auburn is still a week away! So here goes…

The year is 2003 and little sangers has just moved into her first choice school… 700 miles away from home. Her roommate, who we’ll call Carrie is the sweetest thing and we’re having a great time exploring the area of this Northeastern area school. We were living in a community for our major, so we were surrounded by Political Science majors. Everyone was very nice, but both of us were getting sick of the nightly debates and really needed to get out and make some friends outside of our floor who didn’t want to debate everything! I had joined a traveling club sports team, but still felt out of place and Carrie wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. About a week after classes start, Carrie mentions that she’s thinking about going through sorority recruitment. Recruitment?!?!! What is that? After reading a pamphlet we picked up about sororities, we decide to go to the mandatory meeting in hopes of learning more. I should mention that no one in my family has gone away to college before me and most of my family didn’t even know what a sorority or fraternity was.

At the meeting, we learned a little bit about the 8 NPC sororities on campus and how recruitment would work. The following Monday, we would meet in the ballroom and be put into our Rho Chi groups. The schedule would be as follows.

Monday: 8 chapters / Open House
Tuesday: 6 chapters / Philanthropy
Wednesday: 4 chapters / Skit or Slideshow Night
Thursday: 2 chapters / Pref
Friday: Bid Night

I’m going to name the chapters after my all-time favorite childhood TV show: The Carebears!

Funshine
Harmony
Laugh-a-Lot
Love-a-Lot
Cheer
Champ
Bedtime
Share

There were roughly 300 women signed up to go through recruitment and everyone couldn’t stop talking about how excited they were! Carrie and I went back to our room and analyzed every detail of the booklets we’d gotten. We searched the National and local websites for the chapters. As we were obsessing over all this, our RA (who we’ll call Becky) came by to say hi and learned that she was a Funshine! After prying as many details as possible out of her (since she said that she really wasn’t supposed to be talking about it to us…) we left her alone and called our parents. My parents were shocked, but strangely supportive of the idea. (They hadn’t heard much about them, but not shockingly, everything they had heard was pretty negative…) Carrie’s parents on the other hand, were ecstatic! She hadn’t realized, but she was a double legacy to both Bedtime and Share! Her parents hadn’t wanted to push her to go Greek, but both had been members in college, although neither was a particularly involved alumnae. Carrie’s mother and grandmother were both Bedtimes and her older sister and aunt were Shares! Wow! By the end of the night, we had heard from all four of them and gotten advice and tips on what to wear, things to talk about, how to make ourselves stand out, etc. Neither one of us slept that night, we were so excited… if only we’d known what we were getting ourselves in to!

[Ocalagirl]

Oh if only recruitment would come sooner! But I can't wait to hear your story

[AnatraAmore]

Night I: Expectations

The next day I go to class and head off to practice. When I got there, one of the older girls (Veronica) was talking about whether we could end practice a little early because she had to go and get ready for recruitment for her sorority. This girl was one of the members of the team who seemed to do it all – she played on the team, was active in several clubs, and was an officer for Harmony! I got even more excited about going through recruitment as I realized how many people were in sororities! After practice, I dashed back to my dorm (which, because of the set up of the school, required taking a bus) and showered and got ready in record time. Roomie and I headed for the Campus Center to meet our Rho Chis and get put into our groups.

When we arrived, we discovered that we were being separated and so, with nervous “Good Lucks” we headed off to meet with our groups. My PX’s were awesome. One of them reminded me of Veronica – I wondered if they were in the same group. As we lined up, I realized that thanks to my last name, I was doomed to be first in line. As we entered the first room, I went from being nervous to being a nervous wreck. WAIT A MINUTE! No one mentioned singing, clapping, cheering, or the fact that some groups had almost 100 women. Oh my dear. This was not what I was expecting…

Our first room was Champ Bear. Their room was absolutely beautifully decorated and I handed my card to the girl I was talking to. After a few minutes of the normal chit chat, someone else came over and I was passed along. As much as I loved this room, I felt like I was constantly being passed around. We listened to their President and Recruitment Chairs speak and before I knew it, the party was over.

As we waited in the hallway for the next party, our Rho Chis checked to make sure we were all there and ready to go. We each got breathe mints and fixed our hair. Then it was time for Share Bear. This party was drastically different from the first. We were all seated on the floor in rows and the sisters moved down the row from person to person. They had a really cute army theme, but it was kind of awkward the way they switched when the person in charge called out that it was time. However, at least in this room, I knew that everyone, not just me was being switched! I learned a lot about this chapter and observed that they were much smaller than the first group.

Party #3 was very memorable because it was Becky’s chapter, Funshine! They were newly colonized the year before and this was their first formal recruitment as a chapter. They were very enthusiastic and you could tell that they were as excited as we were to be there. Hearing about how this chapter got started and all the fun things they did and traditions they got to start made me really want to be part of it! I passed Becky at one point and she said hi and waved. The girl I was with loved the fact that I knew Becky and as I left, said she couldn’t wait to see me again!

By the time Party #4 came, I was getting tired. Last night’s late night excitement combined with an 8am class and practice left me exhausted to say the least. I don’t remember much about this visit to Laugh-a-Lot. I remember feeling like the girls were a little cold to me and that maybe I didn’t fit in well here, but I thought that maybe I was just tired and the excitement of the night was wearing on me.

Party #5 came and went in the same way. Lots of girls in my group really wanted to be Cheer Bears, but I wasn’t impressed. I was paired with another PNM and two sisters, but the other PNM was doing way more of the talking (and not just because I was tired…) I was starting to feel like maybe this wasn’t such a good idea…

But, then came Party #6! As a entered, I fell in love with their theme. Wow. (If I told you what it was, it would be a dead giveaway on the group, but their mascot was a huge part of it…) The girl who greeted me when I walked in stayed with me the entire night. Other women visited and at one point we paired up with another PNM and her rusher, but I loved that I had one person with me the entire time and that I didn’t have to introduce myself and answer those same silly questions a thousand times. When a new person came over, she jumped in whatever we were talking about… I felt so comfortable and I just knew that Bedtime Bear was somewhere I wanted to go back to!

Our 7th party (and let me tell you, things were starting to get mushy at this point), is another one where I don’t remember a whole lot. This was Harmony Bear, where the girl on my team was a member. My Rho Chi group was especially excited about visiting this chapter and everyone seemed to know someone in it. This party was the first (but not last) time I got upset during recruitment. As members bumped around, Veronica came over to where I was talking to another sister and PNM, but didn’t even acknowledge that she knew me! For some reason, I took this personally to mean that she didn’t like me or something. (In reality, the next day at practice she realized that I was going through, but in the stress of that night hadn’t recognized me.) I decided at that moment that I didn’t want to be a Harmony Bear. (See the silly split-second decisions that clueless freshmen make?)

The final party of the night was finally here. We walked in and again were met with an absolutely gorgeous room. Once again, this chapter had a theme related to their mascot and they even did a song/dance!!! For some reason, this impressed my whole group and we were blown away. All of the women here were tall and blonde (or at least it seemed that way) and although I realized that these women were way more “something” than I was, I wanted to be one of them. As it turned out, so did every single member of my Rho Chi group. As we walked back to the ballroom to do our rankings, all we could talk about was Love-a-Lot!

Our Rho Chis explained that we needed to rank the sororities since we could only attend 6 parties tomorrow. My ranking was:

1. Love-A-Lot
1. Bedtime
1. Funshine
1.Share
1. Champ
1. Laugh-A-Lot
2. Cheer
3. Harmony

[LegallyBrunette]

This totally makes my day--I'd been hoping for another Theta Phi thread!

[AlwaysSAI]

Wooooooooohooooooooooooooooooo!!

I've been dormant for a few days and I'm so glad to come back to another retro thread!!!!!!!!!

YESSSSSSSS!

[AlphaFrog]

Wait - I thought you went to Bridgewater?

They only have 3 NPCs now....did they really loose 5 GLOs in 4 years?

[LegallyBrunette]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

Wait - I thought you went to Bridgewater?

They only have 3 NPCs now....did they really loose 5 GLOs in 4 years?

I don't think those posts are about Bridgewater....the requisite retro thread twist.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by LegallyBrunette

I don't think those posts are about Bridgewater....the requisite retro thread twist.

Ah, Gotcha. Sorry if I ruined the surprise.

Although retros are kinda like going into the movie Titanic knowing the boat sinks. Not a huge surprise.

[LegallyBrunette]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

Ah, Gotcha. Sorry if I ruined the surprise.

Although retros are kinda like going into the movie Titanic knowing the boat sinks. Not a huge surprise.

Yeah, the suprise element is usually lacking in retro threads anyway, unless it's from an entirely unknown or new user. I know sangers mentioned this on GC before anyway. I am curious to know which school this is.

[AnatraAmore]

Yes, yes... the school I attended first semester of my freshman year was not Bridgewater. (which has only ever had 3 NPCs) Onward towards the end...

Night II: What?!?!?!

I didn’t have early class the next morning, so even though Roomie and I were up late chatting, we weren’t as tired going to our parties the next night. Through our conversation, I learned lots about the supposed reputations of the sororities. I also realized that like everyone else, our top 6 were basically the same except for Share and Harmony being switched around on her list. We were both sure that we wanted to be Love-a-Lots although Bedtime and Funshine seemed really cool too. That night we arrived to get our invitations and noticed that there seemed to be less girls there. Weird. Both of us parted, really confident and excited for another, shorter night.

When I met up with my Rho Chi group, one of the girls in my group was crying. Another was loudly talking about how she had only gotten 4 invites. What?!?!?! How was that possible? We had 6 parties that night, didn't we? No one ever mentioned that you might not get invited to 6 chapters. Everyone talked about you ranking them, but it was never mentioned that the sororities did the same. Oh dear. Now I was nervous. Did I even want to look at my list? It read:

Funshine
Harmony
Cheer
Champ
Bedtime
Share

Wait. Where was Love-a-Lot??!?!?! After standing there puzzled, I located my
Rho Chi who seemed to have her hands full and said I wanted to talk to her. When she got a minute, she came over and I told her there had been a mistake. My first choice wasn’t on my list. She explained gently that sometimes that happened, but I was lucky to get 6 invites and I had an awesome schedule. She asked if I was going to be all right. Oh. Okay. Sure.

Parties started only a few minutes later. This is something that I always have hated – you get invitations and only 10 or 15 minutes later, you have to act happy and cheery. I was determined to go and have fun though, and so off I went.

First up was Funshine. Yay!!! I was paired with my RA. We watched a really cute mini skit and looked at pictures from their installation and talked their new member program. The girl I met yesterday came back and said hi. Their philanthropy project was cute as well. I decided that if I couldn’t be a Love-a-Lot, Funshine was still a definite option.

Next, I went to Harmony. I was still a little bitter about the incident last night and felt awkward here. We talked about their philanthropy and worked on a project for children’s hospital. The girl I talked to afterwards seemed uninterested in me and in being there in general. This cemented my feeling that Harmony just wasn’t the place for me.

The third party of the night was Cheer Bear. I honestly don’t remember this party at all. The girls must have been nice, but I just don’t recall any details. It was at this party that I started to cough… and cough… and cough. I don’t know if I was allergic to something in the room or just catching a cold. But I started to feel horrible.

By the next party at Share Bear, I feeling even worse. My coughing was starting to get uncontrollable and no matter how much water I drank, it didn’t help. My Rho Chi gave me a cough drop in the hall, but I swear that made it worse. At this party, I was super excited to be going back. We were seated around a table making boo-boo bunnies for homeless families (washcloths in the shape of bunnies to put ice cubes in – really cute) and between my coughing and the fact that my bunny didn’t look like a bunny, I was miserable. Everyone at my table was laughing and joking around, except me. One of the girls that was at my table finally asked if I was okay and I started coughing and couldn’t stop. I think that everyone in the room was looking at me and the looks on the faces of the sisters at the table were so disgusted that I wanted to crawl under the table. Oh dear. I couldn’t wait to leave!

In the hallway, my Rho Chi greeted me with a hot cup of tea and I was so excited. As we entered Bedtime Bear, I was hoping that I wouldn’t start coughing again. Of course I did. This time though, my rusher could relate and told me how she almost puked during one of her parties. This made me laugh and I felt so much better. She got me a cup of water to keep with me as we made our project and listened to an explanation of their philanthropies. The girls I had met the previous night stopped by and joked around that maybe I was allergic to them. We had a good laugh and before I knew it, the party was over.

Our final party of the night was Champ Bear. The girls here were all talking about how they had gone on a trip to another school and loved their houses. It was here I made a fatal (at least at the time) mistake. I asked if they had a house. Ut oh. Sore subject, apparently. Their President, who had been talking to us, looked at me and said, “We're too independent for that” and then turned and walked away. Oh dear. At that point, I turned bright red, and although the conversation continued around me, I was too embarrassed to say much else.

After we left that night, my rankings were easy to decide:

Funshine
Bedtime
Share
Harmony
Champ
Cheer

I didn’t know what to do though… so of those chapters I would be mortified to have to return to. But, I knew that I really liked Funshine and Bedtime, so I hoped I would be invited back to them the next time. After talking to Roomie, I realized that my rankings were vastly different. Although she really like Funshine and Bedtime, she had been invited back to Love-a-Lot and also really liked Cheer Bear too. We were excited that we had two groups in common that we really liked and were psyched that we could possibly be sisters... or so we thought...

[ΣΣΣMagan]

Originally Posted by sangers

I’m going to name the chapters after my all-time favorite childhood TV show: The Carebears!

Funshine
Harmony
Laugh-a-Lot
Love-a-Lot
Cheer
Champ
Bedtime
Share

The maker of CareBears was a Tri-Sigma, so after initiation, we give all the newly initiated members a CareBear that reflects their personalitly. FYI - I am Miss Love-a-Lot bear! Can't wait to read your story!!!

[AnatraAmore]

Night III: Twist Time

When I woke up that next day, I was feeling much better, but still had a nasty cough on occasion. I visited Health Services and they gave me some cough drops and just told me to rest. So, for the rest of the day, Roomie and I “rested” by trying on clothes and watching TV… ha ha.

Finally it was party time. Roomie met with her Rho Chi a little earlier. She had, of course, gotten her four top choices and would be returning to Love-a-Lot, Funshine, Cheer, and Bedtime. I thought this was wonderful and went off to get my list too. When I arrived, I got the shock of my life. I would only be returning to Bedtime Bear. I liked Bedtime, but what happened to the rest of my list??!?!? After looking at it for a moment, I burst into tears. No, no, no. This was not right. My Rho Chi came over and tried to comfort me. She told me I could go back to my room for the first three parties and join back up with the group for the last one. I headed back and called my best friend back home. She was nice and let me cry and vent and then promptly told me that sororities were dumb and I shouldn’t even bother finishing recruitment. She only meant to make me feel better, but somehow it made me feel worse. After hanging up with her, I washed my face, adjusted my make up, and headed back for my one party.

Bedtime Bear’s party was awesome and again I was paired with sisters I remembered from the previous nights. The only awkward moment was when one of the sisters I hadn’t met before asked where else I was visiting that night… and of course, not being the savy GC’er I am now, I told them that was the only party I was attending. The girl said that maybe it happened for a reason and I agreed, although probably not as enthusiastically as I could have.

After that party, my rankings were pretty easy. (One positive!) The next night was Preference and I would get a call by midnight if I didn’t receive any invitations. Once Roomie got back to the room, I told her about my night. We went out for some ice cream and then hung around, nervously waiting for “the call.”

[Ocalagirl]

Oh you poor thing!! I hope you keep bedtime for preference if its meant to be!!

[fhchick22]

I love this recruitment story!!! Reminds me so much of mine those many years ago. lol wow I cant believe Im gonna be an oldhead!! GO BEDTIME! lol

[AlwaysSAI]

Everything does happen for a reason!!!!


I can't wait for Preference!!!!