Recruitment in the new Millennium - Retro Rush

[WonderWomanAK]

This recruitment story is set in Fall 1999 & Spring 2000 at a small school with about 7,000 students and seven sororities. My husband is very into comics and super heroes, and he has me liking them more and more – so the chapters on campus are: Aquaman, Blue Beetle, Martian Manhunter, Batman, Flash, Superman & Green Lantern. (There was an eighth chapter there just a few years before me and I’m giving a special shout out to them – I am calling them Hawkgirl, which I will also reveal later!)

So, I did say this story begins in Fall of 1999, but I am going to do a quick rewind. I am not the first college bound person in my family; however, it did skip my parents. My grandfather & uncle were in fraternities (grandpa: Chi Phi, uncle: DTD) at the same school. I had ALWAYS wanted to go to that school, and had sweatshirts and other items with that school name all over! I remember being little and finding a patch for something related to my grandpa’s fraternity and asking if I could put it on my Brownie sash. Oh innocence! (He did tell me no, and that it was only for members of the “club,” of course, this began my interest in these “clubs!”

In 1998, my interest in Greek life was stirred even more – I was a senior in high school and my junior year dance team captain came back to visit. She was excited to show us everything from her sorority that she was just initiated into – Martian Manhunter. She had a tote bag with MM letters and was talking about a symbol (local or national symbol? I am not telling yet!) they had – she had a stuffed one with her that was super cute! She also talked about a certain clothing item that was very popular at the school and what they looked like for her chapter. I was sucked in to MM! It sounded perfect for me!

Shortly after this, my grandfather died. This is when I found more about my grandpa’s fraternity, and that my uncle was in one as well. His obituary said he was a Chi Phi. I thought about that commitment, to be as old as my grandpa (78) and still list something you did in college? This had to be special. I looked up more on his school and what was there in terms of sororities. I found Delta Delta Delta (Ha! Is DDD one of the above? Is it MM? I am not telling!) Yes, my senior year. Most people know where they’re going; I had not taken the SAT yet. I was a driven, hard working student – but I was super involved and my parents decided that middle and high school were the perfect times to fight and move out multiple times, so, needless to say – the future wasn’t high up on my list. I escaped into my activities! I had NOT yet chosen a college! So, I dreamed of going to my Grandpa’s school and being a DDD.
Fast forward to Fall of 1999. I am a college freshman. I took that SAT in March (rocked it.) Applied to my school in May, and was accepted in June (actually, on the paperwork I was accepted the day I graduated!) I was loving life.

My school did COB in fall and formal in the spring. I didn’t really look into COB much (I didn’t understand it much, and finding houses on my campus is hard! They’re official, but off campus and some were far away, like drive in a car far!) I was walking back to my dorm and I ran into my dance team captain! We will call her Kathy. Kathy was walking with another girl I knew from high school, and they both were wearing their MM stuff. She stopped and talked to me – and invited me to a MM bid party that night! I had no clue what a bid party was, but okay! They explained where the MM house was and went on their way.

That night I went to the MM party, but got a bit lost finding the house! I saw a girl wearing MM letters and asked her, she told me to follow her. I actually went in the back door of the house with her, which was a bit weird.
The party was fun. I don’t remember the theme, but I remember really liking the house and the sisters all being really nice. I could see myself being a MM, especially since I knew Kathy and another sister. At the end, we were all kind of funneled out of the door as the sisters all did a chant. I felt pretty good!

Fast forward to a few days later when I run into Kathy again, remember, I did not know what happened at a bid party, so I didn’t know what to expect after. She tells me that my grades from my senior year were not high enough to join MM, but they want me to come back next semester. Yes, my grades sucked. After my grandpa died, family life went to major crap and I was pretty depressed (my grandpa and his wife who passed in 1993, were my ROCK in life, and apparently my parents’ rock too.) so I didn’t do too hot. I gave up.