To irishpipes, I do remember what I wore! During Open, we were given a standard t shirt and could pair it with whatever we wanted. some girls were wearing skirts and heels with theirs, but I believed i opted for jean capris one day and grey corduroy pants with a belt the next
I got the 9 am phone call from my Gamma Chi saying I had invites to pick up. Hooray! I rolled out of bed in my PJs and headed over to our meeting spot outside the Student Union to to pick up my invite cards. I was returning to
4 sororities, a full schedule! I had been invited back to
The Doors
Led Zeppelin,
The Beatles,
and
Pink Floyd. I wasn’t very upset that I didn’t receive an invite from
Jimi Hendrix, maybe a little bummed that I wouldn't get to know more about them, but I now knew for sure that it wasn't the place for me. I excitedly returned to the dorms where I got ready for the day in a maroon floral sundress and nice sandals. At our school, the titles Philanthropy and Invite are kind of interchangeable; sororities can (and usually do) emphasize philanthropy during this round, but they aren’t "required" to.
First up was
Led Zeppelin: I was excited to go back to this house. When I walked in, I was greeted by 100 girls wearing the same wacky outfit (I’m not going to describe it for fear of giving away my school, as this is something very unique to their chapter.) The girl I was paired with was very nice, and she explained that the outfit was a tradition going back nearly one hundred years. I liked that this house valued traditions. Overall, conversation flowed smoothly, everyone was friendly, and I had a good time. Their philanthropies were very important to me. At one point, chapter sang a very long song directed at the PNMs that I found off putting, but I tried to look past it. As the party ended, I was sad to leave, but also felt a little less jazzed about
Led Zeppelin than I had during Open. It had fallen a little flat compared to the day before.
The Doors: I was extremely excited I had been invited back here, and after this party, it was still my favorite! The girls I talked to were super down to earth and funny. I just felt as though we clicked. We had to do a craft, something I’m terrible at, but the girl I was doing it with empathized with me and we laughed our way through it. The Seniors sung a song that they traditionally sing during Invite of their last recruitment. Being a young'n and not thinking about how LONG AND EXHAUSTING recruitment is on the other side, I felt that the other actives should’ve been more sentimental than they seemed, but many other girls were yawning, staring into space, or looking at the clock. A girl that I had hit it off with the previous day came up and said “hi” again. I left feeling comfortable and happy, and hoping to God I would receive an invite to Pref the next day.
Then we had a lunch break with our rush groups in the Student Union, and started the second wave of parties. Since our school is smaller, there are less parties to attend, but they all last longer as well, so Recruitment is still an all day event.
The Beatles: This chapter had felt so-so after Open, so I was interested to see what it would be like today. They had a cute as can be theme to Invite, and it was so put together and cool. One girl I talked to had similar interests as me, so conversation flowed better than previously. However, this was only the case with her, and conversation felt a bit fake with the other two. They were *REALLY REALLY EXCITED TO SEE ME!!* which was great of course, but in my head I was thinking "How can you be this excited when you don't know anything about me?" I figured they saw something in me that I hadn’t expected, but it still weirded me out a little. In the end, despite how much I enjoyed the theme, the whole event seemed perfectly rehearsed, and that just wasn’t what I was looking for in a sorority. I'd gladly describe myself as a total weirdo any day, and I just didn't belong in a house that was prim and perfect. I wanted something that was, as a whole, genuine and
unrehearsed. I left feeling sure that
The Beatles was not the chapter for me.
Pink Floyd: Last party of the day, and I was exhausted. It didn’t help that it was set in a cold room that wasn’t decorated much at all. The first girl I talked to I really got along with, we were having a good conversation, and then I got bumped. This next poor girl was in love with her sorority and with our school, but bless her heart, our conversation was dead boring. It wasn’t hard to keep it up, I just really didn’t enjoy what we were talking about. She was extremely sweet, though. Either way, I was relieved to leave at the end. I still felt as though I would rank
Pink Floydover
The Beatles, just because the girls seemed more like me.
We went back, and I found it difficult, once again, to rank. I knew my top 2, but we have to rank a top 3 (even though we can return to a maximum of 2 parties during Pref.) After a talk with my Gamma Chi and a lot of thinking, I ranked (in order):
1. The Doors
2. Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd
I think I should point out that in retrospect, one of the reasons I really wanted
The Doors was that I had a lot of friends in this chapter at different schools. Naive little me didn't even think that different schools had different types of girl in each chapter. I loved
The Doors so much during recruitment, and I think part of me fell into the trap of wanting to be able to say I was sisters with some of my best friends from home (totally not the point of recruitment, me!!!) I went back to my dorm room and talked with my roommate all night about our day and our rankings. She was torn between
The Doors and
Jimi Hendrix. Although I was tired and nervous, I finally managed to get some sleep before Pref the next day.
Hybrid Mode
