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Night I: Expectations
The next day I go to class and head off to practice. When I got there, one of the older girls (Veronica) was talking about whether we could end practice a little early because she had to go and get ready for recruitment for her sorority. This girl was one of the members of the team who seemed to do it all – she played on the team, was active in several clubs, and was an officer for Harmony! I got even more excited about going through recruitment as I realized how many people were in sororities! After practice, I dashed back to my dorm (which, because of the set up of the school, required taking a bus) and showered and got ready in record time. Roomie and I headed for the Campus Center to meet our Rho Chis and get put into our groups.
When we arrived, we discovered that we were being separated and so, with nervous “Good Lucks” we headed off to meet with our groups. My PX’s were awesome. One of them reminded me of Veronica – I wondered if they were in the same group. As we lined up, I realized that thanks to my last name, I was doomed to be first in line. As we entered the first room, I went from being nervous to being a nervous wreck. WAIT A MINUTE! No one mentioned singing, clapping, cheering, or the fact that some groups had almost 100 women. Oh my dear. This was not what I was expecting…
Our first room was Champ Bear. Their room was absolutely beautifully decorated and I handed my card to the girl I was talking to. After a few minutes of the normal chit chat, someone else came over and I was passed along. As much as I loved this room, I felt like I was constantly being passed around. We listened to their President and Recruitment Chairs speak and before I knew it, the party was over.
As we waited in the hallway for the next party, our Rho Chis checked to make sure we were all there and ready to go. We each got breathe mints and fixed our hair. Then it was time for Share Bear. This party was drastically different from the first. We were all seated on the floor in rows and the sisters moved down the row from person to person. They had a really cute army theme, but it was kind of awkward the way they switched when the person in charge called out that it was time. However, at least in this room, I knew that everyone, not just me was being switched! I learned a lot about this chapter and observed that they were much smaller than the first group.
Party #3 was very memorable because it was Becky’s chapter, Funshine! They were newly colonized the year before and this was their first formal recruitment as a chapter. They were very enthusiastic and you could tell that they were as excited as we were to be there. Hearing about how this chapter got started and all the fun things they did and traditions they got to start made me really want to be part of it! I passed Becky at one point and she said hi and waved. The girl I was with loved the fact that I knew Becky and as I left, said she couldn’t wait to see me again!
By the time Party #4 came, I was getting tired. Last night’s late night excitement combined with an 8am class and practice left me exhausted to say the least. I don’t remember much about this visit to Laugh-a-Lot. I remember feeling like the girls were a little cold to me and that maybe I didn’t fit in well here, but I thought that maybe I was just tired and the excitement of the night was wearing on me.
Party #5 came and went in the same way. Lots of girls in my group really wanted to be Cheer Bears, but I wasn’t impressed. I was paired with another PNM and two sisters, but the other PNM was doing way more of the talking (and not just because I was tired…) I was starting to feel like maybe this wasn’t such a good idea…
But, then came Party #6! As a entered, I fell in love with their theme. Wow. (If I told you what it was, it would be a dead giveaway on the group, but their mascot was a huge part of it…) The girl who greeted me when I walked in stayed with me the entire night. Other women visited and at one point we paired up with another PNM and her rusher, but I loved that I had one person with me the entire time and that I didn’t have to introduce myself and answer those same silly questions a thousand times. When a new person came over, she jumped in whatever we were talking about… I felt so comfortable and I just knew that Bedtime Bear was somewhere I wanted to go back to!
Our 7th party (and let me tell you, things were starting to get mushy at this point), is another one where I don’t remember a whole lot. This was Harmony Bear, where the girl on my team was a member. My Rho Chi group was especially excited about visiting this chapter and everyone seemed to know someone in it. This party was the first (but not last) time I got upset during recruitment. As members bumped around, Veronica came over to where I was talking to another sister and PNM, but didn’t even acknowledge that she knew me! For some reason, I took this personally to mean that she didn’t like me or something. (In reality, the next day at practice she realized that I was going through, but in the stress of that night hadn’t recognized me.) I decided at that moment that I didn’t want to be a Harmony Bear. (See the silly split-second decisions that clueless freshmen make?)
The final party of the night was finally here. We walked in and again were met with an absolutely gorgeous room. Once again, this chapter had a theme related to their mascot and they even did a song/dance!!! For some reason, this impressed my whole group and we were blown away. All of the women here were tall and blonde (or at least it seemed that way) and although I realized that these women were way more “something” than I was, I wanted to be one of them. As it turned out, so did every single member of my Rho Chi group. As we walked back to the ballroom to do our rankings, all we could talk about was Love-a-Lot!
Our Rho Chis explained that we needed to rank the sororities since we could only attend 6 parties tomorrow. My ranking was:
1. Love-A-Lot
1. Bedtime
1. Funshine
1.Share
1. Champ
1. Laugh-A-Lot
2. Cheer
3. Harmony
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Theta Phi Alpha
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