Does anyone else have regrets joining?

[AOII_LB93]

Yes and no.

To be honest if I had really been more observant during rush I probably wouldn't have joined my chapter. I didn't really see that they were so much smaller than the rest of the chapters on campus thus creating the problems of a small chapter where the rest are larger. It was my second choice, but really that was probably because I was a dumb 17 year old. When I was choosing the chapters I wanted to pref from three that I really liked I flipped a coin; it was either Tri-Delta, Delta Gamma or AOII and I preffed Tri-Delta and AOII. I'm sure I would have fit in very well at DG and a ton of girls from DG came up to me after rush and were really disappointed that I had dropped them. One (the recruitment chair at the time when I rushed) came up to me at Spring Break that year and said that she wanted me to be her little sis and she was bummed that I had released them.

It would have been nice to have been in a bigger chapter that had better social events from the start. However saying that I also would not have had the opportunity to take a leadership position as quickly as I did in my chapter, thus putting in motion the change that took place over the few years I was a collegiate. I went from Jr. Panhel delegate, to Social Chair, to NM Educator, dabbled in day chairing for Rush, then VPMR. In those years, we really turned the chapter around, doubling in size and finally being competitive on campus as we really changed our image and the campus' image of us.

I was a collegiate for a few short years, but being an alumna has really made me see what AOII truly is to me and I wouldn't trade it. It's helped shaped me into who I am today.