The Reluctant PNM

[ellebud]

Preference and the Reluctant PNM:

I must say at the outset that my daughter had an outstanding rush experience. Was if perfect? Not in one sense that she got every house (she almost did). But that I believe that it taught her a lot about herself and others. It was really a growth experience.

Our University has Preference in the early morning and Bid Night the same day. The girls go in at 7 a.m. to pick up their invitations. Although I didn't see her I know that she wore the dress that she had rejected last year. Yes, the Audrey Hepburn ish dress.

I got a call. Her voice is always level so you can't read anything into what she is thinking. Mom, I got two of my three top choices. (You go to two). But I don't understand what happened with.............. I had 10 girls around me. How could I have read them so wrong?

YOU turned down MY CHILD? I kept my voice level. I simply said that she had two choices that many girls would DIE to get and to have fun. She agreed, but again, briefly, wondered how she read a group of people so wrong.

Frankly, I suspect I do know what may have played into the decision. But this is life in the big city and in rush. Never look back look foward. And she went to her parties.

It was seven in the morning. And, amazingly I wasn't tired. So, I got up, had coffee and read the newspaper. I got my call three hours later.

IT'S .................!! I KNOW IT! I love them and they love me. (No, no one said anything to her.) Through the haze of the flu she saw it. I cautioned her about rush numbers. But said I was SO happy that she found what she thought would be her sorority.

She came home for the afternoon to rest. It never occured to her that she would get the call. She left and I got a panicked call from her cell. What happens if ...........doesn't bid me? How could I be so wrong? Suppose they were being false? I heard girls screaming in the background as my child walked to receive her bid. She hung up.

Please note: I am now standing in the kitchen with my mother in law who was here for dinner. I have become, in my stomach, a nervous halaria. (I'm not sure what that means exactly, my mother used to say it about someone who was about to loose it.) Suddenly it hit me what I had done: What if this doesn't work out? What if I pushed her into a heartbreaking situation?

I get a call back. My daughter, the Reluctant PNM is screaming.

Digress: On the first night of Rush, right before she was to go into her first house I panicked. She had a favorite pair of earrings. They are a symbol to one of the houses. I texted her, "Are you ok? Are you wearing earrings?" The reply came back, "Sick. No"

I could see the looks on sisters faces if they saw the earrings. "She's a stalker. She wants us." Or, "What a b***** She's wearing so and so's symbols" In this case, they were earrings that she loves, but didn't wear.

And, I must tell you that my Reluctant PNM found some of her new sisters and led the run to her new sorority:


DELTA GAMMA.

She almost wore her anchor earrings.

And, if any of you read my rush story, the DG house was the soda sharing house.