A drama filled, rollercoaster Back to School themed recruitment!

[HereComesTheSun]

Hello!

I went through recruitment a few weeks ago and it was definitely the most emotionally draining and amazing times of my life and it's weird because i've met some women I know I will be close to for a very long time during recruitment, but also i've made painful memories that are difficult to bring up in just one short week.

I had an older sister in Greek Life and she is currently a senior at the same school I go to, so I had a lot of background knowledge (which probably ended up hurting/helping me in the end) and I'd visited her countless times, so i had made a lot of acquaintances and friends in sororities as well. However at this point, my sister was at the end of the rope with her sorority and was having a lot of problems and was probably dropping. She said she knew me too well and did not want me joining this chapter because she knew it wasn't for me and said she new for a fact her house had some tricks up their sleeve, especially for legacies.

I tried not to listen and go in with an open mind. But I knew quite a few girls in the house and wouldn't put anything like that past them, but still. It was only fair to go in with an open mind.

This year at my school, more girls had signed up for recruitment than ever before and the whole campus (well everyone in Greek Life or PNMs) were buzzing about it and excited to see how it all turned out.

So anyway, recruitment began on a sunday and was just programming and campus tours and that was the same on Monday as well. I was super nervous and just really eager to visit chapters and get to know them for myself and showcase my personality.

Tuesday was the day! Today was open house day and PNMs would either be visiting 6 houses or 7 houses, since there are 13 on campus. The first day, I visited 6.

The first one I visited was Princeton. I had heard a lot about this chapter, both good and bad, but i'd say this one was probably the most "infamous". But I didn't care at all. I just wanted to go in! They opened their doors and a sea of beautiful women poured out of the doors and they were chanting loudly in their cute skirts and wedges. Their song was catchy and I would die if I had to talked to 900 women for 2 days wearing wedges in the heat, but damn they had some great showmanship. I had really great conversations there and the women were really nice and funny and the conversations flowed like no other. These girls definitely knew what they were doing. This house was definitely one of my top favorites.

The second one I visited was UMich. These girls have had the highest GPAs on campus for several consecutive years and I was really intimidated going in because I had a 3.0 GPA and felt like I had no chance here. The conversations were lackluster and the women I talked to were only talking to me about random things like what I did during the summer, where I worked, what kind of music I liked and what concerts I went to. Everyone speaks so highly of them that I thought I would have a fantastic conversation, but it just wasn't there. But I had visited this chapter last spring when my school had something similar to a Greek Preview Day and they were very nice there, I just probably talked to the wrong girls, which was fine.

The next chapter I visited was Ole Miss. I had also heard many things about this house. They had the second highest GPA and were pretty academic, but also know as the "party girl" house. And the party girl rep didn't really phase me because they can't be too crazy if they have the second best GPA right? My conversations here were iffy. I had 2 really good ones and 2 bland ones. I felt lukewarm about this house.

The next chapter I visited was LSU. This one was probably my second favorite, if not favorite house of all of them throughout the whole week. I had an amazing conversation with every girl I talked to and they were funny and interesting, but I still answered questions about school, involvement and what I would bring to a sisterhood. When I was talking about leadership, a girl actually stopped me to say she looked up to me! I loved this house so much and I knew a girl from high school in this chapter and my sister made it really far during recruitment with this house and two girls even recognized me as her sister, so I felt like I would definitely make it far with these girls.

The next one up was Wake Forest. I had a better time than I expected here. I liked them and they were nice and our conversations were pretty good. However, when I asked one girl about what their new member program was like, she said and I quote: "Yeah it's pretty dumb and long and there's a lot of pointless meetings. But luckily we don't have tests like some other houses." I liked this chapter, but that definitely turned me off and I was shocked she would say that about something so important.

The sixth and last chapter I visited was UGA. This chapter was AMAZING! I had a friend in this chapter and we even talked for a second while I was here. I had hilarious conversations here and I loved this house because they asked me fun things, important things, but also let me know about them which I really loved. I thought I definitely had a great connection with them.

Today was hard because even though they all weren't 100% perfect, I had a good time at every house and could honestly see myself in all of those chapters! How was I ever going to preference?

This day was exhausting and I could feel my voice giving out already, but recruitment was so fun! I'm extroverted, so talking about myself and talking with different people was really fun for me, but I was still just as nervous as everyone else and just wanted to see if the feelings were mutual and see who invited me back, but mostly to get the week over with and see what chapter I would be in.