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DAY TWO:
The next morning, I slept in, and it was my sister's turn to spend forever in the shower. Normally I wouldn't have cared, but she started singing and woke me up! We got ready, had breakfast, and went to class. We each had two that day, and our second class was an introduction to psychology class that we'd scheduled together. When we got to that class, we noticed that a girl in the class was wearing a shirt with Sky Blue's letters. We got excited and whispered that we'd go say hello to her after class, not really understanding the rules of silence during rush. We ended up missing her because while she was sitting on the end of a row in the auditorium, we were in the middle and had to wait for people next to us to get out, so when we looked for her, she was gone. We headed back to the dorm and had lunch, then picked out our outfits for that night. 65Mustang suggested that we take a short nap so we'd be fresh for that night, which I thought was a great idea. I had also learned from a dorm resident in my first class that the pizza parlor in our dorms served resident meals throughout the day, even when the cafeteria was closed. I suggested that after our nap, we run to the pizza place to get food and eat it early to keep our stomachs from getting noisy.
Our plan worked out. We woke up at 4, got meals of two slices of pizza and a drink, ate, did make-up, got dressed, etc. We nearly had a catastrophe when we got to the dorm lobby and 65Mustang's hose snagged on a passing student's backpack zipper, but we doubled back to the room so she could change, and we still made it to the ballroom at 5:30. Thank God we lived on campus.
I noticed that one of the rushees was missing from my group. Our Rho Chi told us that the girl would not be re-joining our group due to personal reasons. My curiosity kicked in, and I wondered why anyone would quit after only one night. Then I meanly thought about the sophomore badmouther, and the three meanies in 65Mustang's group, and wished for a second that they all would have quit after that first night. Then I mentally pinched myself and put the thought out of my head so I could concentrate on my new schedule, which read:
Violet Sparkle
Jet Black
Sky Blue
Candy Apple Red
Silver Streak
Midnight Blue
I was excited to go to Violet Sparkle first and see my friend 68VWConvertible again, and glad that Jet Black would get a chance to meet me earlier in the evening. And I thought that visiting the sisters at Candy Apple Red would be a good pick me up after the snack break. Then I found out that there would be skits tonight, which would cut into our time to talk to the sisters. I got nervous and wondered if this meant that the girls at Jet Black really wouldn't get a good picture of me.
Violet Sparkle did not disappoint, mostly. Their skit was really cute, and the sister I talked to was very friendly, but I didn't get a chance to talk to 68VWConvertible, which made me a little sad, but she did wave to me from across the room. The sister who rushed me talked about how my talents could benefit their chapter of Violet Sparkle and how her group was made up of sisters from lots of different backgrounds. Even though I didn't get to talk to my friend, I still left this group feeling really good.
Jet Black was next, yay! When I walked in, a sister pulled me aside, introduced herself, and said, "66Camaro, I'm so glad to meet you. I've heard so much about you!" That surprised me! Maybe I had made a good impression last night after all! She ushered me to another part of the room, where we watched their skit together, then we talked. She had been a Jet Black for a year and sympathized with how hectic rush was for me. She said she hadn't known much about sororities when she decided to rush, and the experience was overwhelming for her, but it had been really rewarding to find her Greek home. Then she turned me over to another sister- who smiled and told me, "66Camaro, my name is *****, and I just spoke to 65Mustang in the first party!" She said she was glad to meet both of us and thought it was neat that we were rushing together. I left this group feeling so much better than when I began the night, but I was starting to get confused. I really was enjoying myself at all the parties, which was great, but what if I couldn't make a decision when the time came? I noticed that sophomore badmouther left the party almost strutting, and I felt sure she had found her home, but what if I was so indecisive that I couldn't find mine?
I had to shake those thoughts and go into the Sky Blue party, where we were ushered to the center of the room as a group to watch the skit. These girls showed they could sing and dance, and it was impressive. After the skit, the intercollegiate athlete I'd spoken to last night came over to me and said hello. She introduced me to another sister and we had an okay conversation, but I felt like our personalities weren't clicking. We shared no common interests at all and the conversation stalled from time to time. So while we were polite to each other, it was a little awkward for me. As I left this party, I reminded myself that I'd had a good time at their previous party, and decided that if I did get invited to become sisters with a chapter of girls, that didn't mean that I had to be best friends with every one of them.
Break time hit, and I was glad to have the chance to clear my head. I got a cup of juice and a few grapes and found 65Mustang, who was talking to a girl from her rush group. The girl introduced herself as 57Chevy and she was really funny. We tried not to talk about our experiences so far, and 57Chevy even said that the 3 meanies in their group had basically alienated all the other girls in their group because they seemed to have something bad to say about every chapter. My sister and 57Chevy pointed out the 3 meanies, and I looked over- to find them talking to the sophomore badmouther from my group! I rolled my eyes and told them I knew exactly what they were talking about. We all agreed that we were having a good time. 57Chevy said that she was a legacy to two of the groups, but grinned really big and said she wouldn't tell which ones. My mouth fell open, and 65Mustang said, "I know, doesn't that drive you crazy?" Then break time was over and we were off to our fourth parties.
Candy Apple Red was just great. Their skit was great (it also had music like the Sky Blue skit), the two sisters I talked to were great, and I was excited about the whole party. One of the sisters I talked to said that she liked the energy that 65Mustang and I had, but that we were still different people. I was glad to hear that we seemed to be standing out as individuals and figured that her comment about energy must be good! The second sister talked about how academics was important to Candy Apple Red and said that there was a lot of support available to any sister who needed it, and mandatory study groups for all pledges. Oh God, I wondered, would my grades be good enough for this chapter? But the sister seemed to mean it as a supportive statement, not as a warning, so I figured she was just telling me that to be informative. I left this party feeling like my decision making process just kept getting harder.
Silver Streak was next. I worked my way to the front of our group, tossed my hair back, and walked into their party first. I'd show that sophomore badmouther that I wasn't afraid to take a chance and enjoy this group's party! The sisters' struggles showed again, though, from the beginning of the party to the end. Since they had fewer sisters than everyone else, their skit only had a few sisters in it, and they seemed to be trying to be too cheerful. Tonight, I was one of the girls who rushed two to a sister, and the girl I was with had been talking to- oh no- sophomore badmouther. The sister we were with first did her best to talk to both of us and smile, but when she was talking about some of the principles on which Silver Streak was founded, my co-rushee yawned loudly without excusing herself. The poor sister stopped talking and had a stunned look on her face. I felt awful and jumped in with a question to get her talking again. She re-grouped and got back into it- obviously talking more to me now than to the other girl- and she really tried, but now her voice was strained and she even looked like she was trying not to cry. She got bumped by another sister, and it was one I hadn't talked to yet. The yawning girl acknowledged to the second sister that she remembered talking to her the previous night- and then hurriedly excused herself to go to the bathroom. I wanted to kick her, especially when she never came back for the rest of the party. The second sister and I had a nice enough conversation, but she seemed so matter of fact that I wasn't sure how to take it. When it was time to go to the next party, I shook her hand and told her I'd had a nice time, and she gave me a smile that seemed really tired, I guess. I started walking out of the room kind of in the middle of our rush group, when I hit on an idea. I turned around and looked for the first sister, the one who looked like she was going to cry earlier, and jogged (as best as I could in my heels) over to her. I gave her a hug and told her that I really had had a good time talking to her. She seemed surprised and hugged me back, thanking me for coming. I was the last one in my group to walk out of the party because of that, and when our group gathered in front of the door to the next part, sophomore badmouther looked at me, then rolled her eyes and looked at yawning girl- who had suddenly re-joined our group. I didn't care. I didn't think that Silver Streak was the place for me, but I knew they sure didn't deserve to be treated meanly.
Midnight Blue was our last party for the night, and I became glad that 65Mustang and I had taken that nap this afternoon. These girls were still full of energy, from their skit to their conversations with the rushees. The first sister from this group who had rushed me last night, the one with the big bow in her hair, came over and hugged me and told the sister I was with that I was a really super girl. I thought that was a little weird, since this girl had talked to me so much more than I talked to her, but the sister I was talking to didn't know that and smiled really big at me. Like the second sister at the Sky Blue party, we really didn't share any common interests, but I felt like this sister handled it better because she at least said things like "Wow, that's neat" and "I've never tried that! That sounds interesting!" and she managed to keep the conversation flowing, pretty much. The second sister I talked to was nice, but she was a little too excited about having been recently asked to be a bridesmaid in her sorority sister's wedding. She pointed out the sister and talked about the wedding for several minutes. I was polite and tried to reflect that everything sounded really exciting, but I wasn't there to talk about a wedding of a girl I didn't even know. She finally dropped the subject and talked a little about her sorority. I didn't leave this party with a bad feeling, but I definitely did not feel connected to the girls.
We returned to the ballroom and our Rho Chis told us that it was time for the dreaded first cuts. The rushees could come back to a max of 4 parties the next night, and we had to cut two. I had a difficult couple of decisions to make, and it made my stomach flip flop a little bit.
We all sat at tables without talking and made our cuts. I couldn't think straight with everyone around me, so I quietly waited until most of the people at my table were gone. After a few moments, my Rho Chi walked up and leaned over to whisper in my ear, "Would you like to talk about anything?" I took a deep breath and told her that I was having trouble making a decision on who not to keep. I told her there was a group I wasn't really feeling a connection with, but I wasn't sure I wanted to cut them altogether. My Rho Chi told me that this happens all the time, every year, at every school, and she had experienced this herself. She told me to follow my heart and she was sure I would make the right decision. It helped that she was supportive, but she didn't make the decision for me, like a good Rho Chi.
After about 5 more minutes, I decided that I wanted to return to:
Violet Sparkle
Jet Black
Candy Apple Red
Sky Blue
And I regretted:
Midnight Blue- The girls had seemed nice, but after I added up the experiences from both nights, I really hadn't felt a connection to this group. I was sorry to have to tell anyone no, but not as sorry as I was to tell...
Silver Streak no. The girls had been trying so hard to be nice to everybody and to put their best feet forward, but it seemed obvious that they were expecting people to not want to join their group. I had a lump in my throat and hoped that the sister I had hugged wouldn't think I was being fake if she learned that I didn't want to come back to their party tomorrow night.
65Mustang and I walked back to the dorm with 57Chevy, who lived on another floor in our dorm. We all agreed that tonight had been very interesting, and it had been more difficult than we had thought to cut the groups that we had cut. 57Chevy agreed to come by our room the next day around 3 to show us what she planned to wear that night, and to critique what we were wearing. We were supposed to wear "business casual lunch date" attire, which we understood to mean no jeans, but we were still a little unclear about it. We invited 57Chevy to lunch, but she had a class when we had our afternoon break, and she was coming by our room after the class.
After 57Chevy left, 65Mustang bounced on her bed with excitement. Of the 3 of us, she seemed to have the least trouble choosing where she wanted to go the next night. She was even more sure about her frontrunner tonight, but she had other groups she really liked too. I told her that I didn't have a definite favorite yet, but I would be really happy if I got to return to the four places I wanted to go back to.
We truly realized that rush was an exhausting process overall, because now that we were back in our room, we were beat, even though we had napped today. I was asleep almost before my head hit my pillow.
Pit stop time again! The next big post will be day three!
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Hybrid Mode
