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Hey xowest! You should definitely PM me what school, that'd be crazy if it was the same!
So.
I apologize for...
A. the fact that this is so long. Superfluity always did get me marked down on my essays.
B. That I'm posting so slowly. I revoke all previous annoyance towards other GCers slow to post their stories. I think I forgot that to be going through recruitment one must also be, you know, in college. That pesky education thing keeps getting in the way...
C. Any grammatical errors which so often annoy GCers. I wrote this late at night after finishing a history essay. Feel free to laugh at me.
And now without further ado....
ROUND 1: OPEN HOUSE , Day 1
If no one minds too much I thought I’d start a little before recruitment that day….
Like at many schools, we’d been given a recruitment shirt to wear for the first two rounds. Unfortunately there was a lot of confusion over them. Remember there were two lecture hall presentations going at orientation? One got told to wear them, one got told not to. I wasn’t sure what I would do so I decided to ask the only other girl on my floor rushing, Louie. I was a little nervous she and I had barely spoken and she tended not to spend any time with girls in our hall. She lives right across the hall from me so I stuck my head out just as she was coming out to take a shower, wrapped in a towel. As soon as the question had left my mouth she went “Oh crap... I think I just locked myself out…” This was an hour before we had to be at recruitment. After she’d taken her shower and couldn’t get ahold of her room mate she hid out in my room while I ran around the complex trying to find an RA to let her in. Interestingly enough, helping to rescue someone who is locked out in just a towel is quite the bonding experience. We were friends after that and it was nice to know I had someone to talk to about recruitment if I needed it.
I was supposed to be at recruitment at 5, but our rho gams had told us we wouldn’t be leaving until 5:40. This was Thursday, which at Oregon the week before a home game, is the day all student tickets that were returned go up online . Everyone had told me that no one, NO ONE, ever gets a ticket that way, and really who would return a ticket to the first home game of the term? I didn’t think I’d be able to even try because of rush, but on a whim I decided to leave later and try…and I got one. I literally skipped to recruitment. It was so hard to walk around screaming “I GOT A TICKET I GOT A TICKET!” I was on a high and it felt like everything was right in the world [ah how easy we college students are to please]. I felt like only good things would happen now. Eventually I met up with my group and after waiting around an awfully long time we set out for out first house. At this point there were roughly 35-40 girls in a walking group and two walking groups visiting a house at a time.
GLINDA: When I’d first talked about rushing my parents had both said “You should be a Glinda! This was because they only Greeks they knew in college were all Glindas. I knew a lot about this organization nationally and was really excited to visit. We did the normal [or at least at I think it’s normal…I’ve only done this once you see…] line up outside by PNM number and get called in one or two at a time. All the houses started parties at the same time and you could hear perky, “Hi, I’m Susie Sorority Woman and I’d like to invite YOU to XYZ’s open house!” from EVERY direction. I was terrified of getting called in with someone else, but was really relieved to have a rusher to myself. We went into their dining room and as I was towards the back of my group alphabetically there were already A LOT of girls in there. I can’t emphasize how loud it was. I felt terrible, I was actually shouting at my rusher. I honestly don’t remember anything about the first girl I talked to other than that I liked her. They bumped us very abruptly. I think I talked to 4 girls here but I couldn’t tell you for sure. I remember having one conversation in the middle with a girl about music and playing the piano where I felt a connection. The next and last girl I didn’t particularly care for, I didn’t get the sense that she was interested in me at all. Overall I was hoping to come back and meet more girls from this house.
ELPHABA: If I was to describe these girls in one word it would be “chill.” They were so relaxed and down to earth, I didn’t even realize how intense the vibe at Glinda had been until I walked in here. I talked with two girls, and I enjoyed both conversations though they weren’t anything extraordinary, the usual major, what dorm do you live in, how are classes sort of banter. The whole time I was so so nervous and hoped that it wasn’t startlingly apparent. Afterwards everyone was all atwitter: this house was clearly going to be a favorite for everyone. I really hoped to come back, but realized that everyone was hoping the same thing and the chances were slim.
TINMAN: Standing outside I started to talk to two of the girls in front of me and commented that I wished I had gotten more recs. The girl immediately in front of me commented that she had at least one to every house, while the other had never even heard of them. The latter is more the usual attitude at Oregon and the first girl reminded me of what I’ve heard about the big SEC schools. I thought about asking her but then we were called inside. The house was lovely and instead of being in a dining room like the last two houses I was in a living room. My first girl seemed pretty goofy, like the girl that would always make you laugh in class. She started off by saying “I hate all the rush small talk. So what’s your favorite tv show?” We had a nice conversation about How I Met Your Mother and Modern Family, then the president chimed in to introduce the house mom which I thought was sweet. The next girl seemed really nice and when she asked about why I was rushing I told her that going to an all-girls school had been a big factor and she commented that it had been the exact same for her. It turned out that she had gone to a sister school my high school! Again I hoped that my nerves weren’t shining through too much. I really liked the girls I talked to and knew I would love to come back.
LION: One of my childhood friends had just gone Lion at UW the week before and in the back of my head I was thinking it would be great if we ended up sisters. Just as at the other three houses I waited outside praying that I wouldn’t get double rushed, and if I did that it was that it would be with the nice girl behind me, not she-of-the-many-recs in front of me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the customer with highest number on prayer grants that night. I got called in a pair with scary intense girl and it was immediately clear that this girl was no amateur. You know how some kids in Asia start studying for university exams when they’re in like 7th grade? I felt like this girl had been brought up the same way, but for rush. It was apparent in the way she sat just so, legs crossed, hands folded in her lap, torso leaned in towards the rusher just a little to show that she was interested. She dominated the conversation while simultaneously deferring to me from time to time so not to seem pushy. I’m not kidding: this girl was like the Chuck Norris of rush [I know, I know, that’s a whole another thread…]. The first rusher was alright, I certainly didn’t hate her or anything, but she was obviously more interested in the other girl, although she tried to include me in conversation. A couple minutes into conversation the other girl mentioned that everyone in her family had been Greek…at Alabama. I mentally banged my head against the table. We got bumped and it got worse. I didn’t like this girl and she quite obviously had NO interest in me. We got to the topic of the game and she asked if I liked football. I said yes and she looked at me like I was a foreign species. I sat there while the rusher and other PNM had a nice little convo which in no way or shape included me. It didn’t help that I couldn’t hear a thing the rusher was saying: this was the loudest house yet and I have no flipping idea how the other PNM heard her. Is supersonic hearing taught in rush boot camp? I don’t know. Anyways… It was a painfully awkward experience but mentally I bared my teeth and reminded myself that I’d be awfully lucky and unusual if I got through recruitment without at least one of those. I knew without a doubt that this house would drop me and I would have absolutely no problem with that.
AUNTIE EM: After the mess at Lion it was such a relief to see the Auntie Em house. This was the only house on campus that I knew girls in. It was so comforting to know that I might see a familiar face, at least in passing. At the same time I came in a little critical, I did not want to be someone that chose a house just because my friends were there. I got picked up, solo thank God, by a senior. This was the first house that actually spread us out across a few rooms. For the first time that night, I was able to carry on a conversation in a normal tone of voice. It was fabulous. My rusher was wonderful. It turned out that the only girl from my school in the house was her little. We had a great conversation involving everything from dorm food to student government and the recent riot [oh my freshman class…look up “Eugene Riot” on Youtube if you’re wondering]. It was the first time I’d seen anyone laugh all night. I was actually bummed to get bumped until I realized that it was her little, the girl from my school. She and I had never really known each other in high school though we’d been on the same sports team for a couple of years, and again: everyone knows everyone anyways. She told me that she had gone through rush for the same reasons as I had and found the same community as we’d had in high school in her chapter. She talked about what the friendship of the girls had meant to her and how great living in was this year. Honestly, it was almost more like what you’d expect from a preference conversation. It felt like a completely different breed of conversation from what I’d had the rest of the night, I wasn’t nervous here, I felt at home. I had expected to like this chapter, but I left in love. I went home for the night with the warm and fuzzy feeling I associate with being with my good friends or getting a great surprise. I went to bed smiling, and hoping that tomorrow would be just as good as the first night.
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