Background information: I wrote out my story in Word and as I am reading it I notice that I reference "shows" a lot. To clarify, my high school did a massive fundraiser every year called Street Scenes. The school was actually built with this in mind. All of the classroom walls were collapsible to accommodate Street Scenes! Anyway, for a weekend in February the entire school is turned into a series of night clubs. There is an Alumni Show, a Student Show, and various other bands and groups as well. Some rooms are restaurants (local restaurants come and serve food. Some rooms are bars or holding rooms with comedians. It is hard to describe, but it earned over $100,000 every year back when I was in school. (Check it out if you are ever in Lake County - they still have it at Carmel Catholic High School.) Anyway, the Student Show was very cool to be in. You either had to be really talented or really good looking! Most of the people in this were very popular. We worked on the Student Show for 6 months and it was very professionally done. I was also in school musicals, which were very "uncool" but because I was a singer I did them anyway. 
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Over the summer, Julie, a girl who was a year ahead of me in high school and was on the volleyball team with me, sends me this awesome handmade card. It is a big orange “I” and when I open it the inside is blue. It welcomes me to U of I and tells me to call her this summer if I want any advice about anything. I wonder how Julie knows I am going to U of I. She was in my general group of acquaintances, but she isn’t someone I kept in touch with – in fact, I didn’t even know she went to U of I. I think it is really nice though, and she was such a nice girl that I giver her a call. She tells me that she is in a sorority,
Galway, and loves it. She also tells me that at the very least you get to move in to your dorm room early by rushing, so even if you don’t pledge, it is a good idea to rush. Julie was very popular in high school and has a great personality. She isn’t cute in the stereotypical sorority sense, though, and that makes a big impression on me. Up to that point, I didn’t know that there was any kind of diversity on sorority life. I figured that membership selection had to be based largely on appearance because that is how sororities were portrayed. I loved the notion that a smart, funny girl like Julie (who wasn’t ugly – just not gorgeous or pretentious) was in a sorority.
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I have a friend, Marietta, who is an alumna of
Cork at Northwestern. Marietta's mom directed the Street Scenes Student Show and that is how I know her. Marietta is actually kind of locally famous. She has done a lot of commercials and theater. Her boyfriend was just in a movie, “Adventures in Babysitting.” Marietta has moved to California and was just in “Family Ties.” She is beautiful and talented and a genius as well. (She went on to marry George Newbern from "Adventures in Babysitting" and "Father of the Bride" - he was Brian the husband - and Marietta was on "Dear John" and "The Hughleys.") She volunteers to write a rec for me. I am not really sure what a rec is, and I initially tell her no thanks because I want a fresh start and don’t want the sororities judging me based on who I was in high school. (I thought that being an honors student, an athlete, and a singer were BAD things since they weren’t as cool as being a cheerleader. I was SO naïve.) Marietta tells us that her sorority will not accept anyone without a recommendation, so she asks for a senior picture and writes me up! As far as I know, that is my only rec. The great thing is that now I have heard of 3 sororities!!!
Marietta’s mom tells me that Barbara, another Street Scenes alumna, who was 2 years older than me, dropped out of U of I and transferred to Marquette the year before because she wanted to get into
Waterford and didn’t. I am stunned because Barbara was beautiful and probably the most popular girl in my high school. Marietta’s mom told me that Gerri, an active of
Waterford who was also in these shows, told her that Barbara was sort of quiet and that came off as snobbish. This sticks in my mind because I was pretty quiet too, at that age. And, it makes me worry because Barbara was someone I looked up to in school. On the up side, it means that I know one more person in a sorority at U of I! I am not sure if Gerri will remember me since she was a senior when I was a freshman, so we only were in Street Scenes one year together.
So now I have heard of
Limerick,
Galway,
Cork, and
Waterford, which is good I guess, but I had never thought about the possibility of being rejected until I heard about Barbara. In retrospect I should have asked Marietta a lot of questions about Greek life, but she was sort of intimidating and I didn't want her to think I was stupid. That kind of summarizes my whole rush - I didn't utilize some of the available tools because I was too embarrassed about how I would be perceived. I would never approach it that way if I had it to do all over again. I am worried that now several people know that I am planning to rush, so if something happens to me like what happened to Barbara, I will be mortified.
Hybrid Mode
