Ok AXOrushadvisor, ask and ye shall receive
Without further ado I give you….
BID DAY
For the last year I have thought to myself, “how on earth does any sane individual sleep the night before bid day?” And now I understand that if you stick out recruitment the whole way through you are, by that night, a mere walking zombie. Recruitment didn’t keep me up that night. But something had me more than a little freaked out. That night the residents in my hall had been notified that our dorm was infested with cockroaches and in order to have time to sufficiently spray and let the rooms air out we needed to be out of the building pretty much all afternoon of the next day. I had only two classes that day and was done by 11. Bid day started at 5. What on earth was I going to do with my nervous old self for 6 hours, 5 of which I couldn’t spend in my dorm? As it happened, I got lucky. Like I’ve mentioned before, Oregon is as small of a campus as a place with 20,000 students crammed into roughly 16 blocks can be. I ran into someone I had worked with in previous years, who has been what I can only describe a big sister to me. She’s a sweetheart, but one of the least bubbly people I know. Her calm was exactly what I needed. She adopted me for the day and took me to her apartment where I worked on homework and caught up with her for the better part of the afternoon. I told her about rush and bid day, and when I mentioned Auntie Em she laughed and said, “My great aunt was an Auntie Em here a long time ago. And I feel like I know everyone in that house. Do you know so and so?” She ended up accidentally revealing the affiliation of a rho gamma to me =) But I figured it was bid day and I would know all soon enough. I had just enough time to stop at my dorm, change into something moderately presentable and head over to our meeting place, the EMU amphitheatre, which for those of you not familiar with campus is a moderately sized circular brick area outside our student union where musical groups often perform. I megafail at describing it, but there is a small stage in one corner which faces out to terraced levels of seating. To look at it you wouldn’t think that you could fit 500 some girls and all their nerves inside it. But trust me: you can. It was the worse wait of any day. The PNMs had been told to arrive at 5, a full hour before bids were scheduled to be distributed. It was entertaining enough, music played on speakers, turning the gathering into a mini dance party at times and garnering lots of attention from passersby. Oregon’s bid day by no imagination is a spectacle on the level of SEC schools like Georgia or Alabama, but it’s hard to miss that many girls wringing out their hands with nerves and singing Katy Perry. People were actually stopping to watch. One by one, actives from each chapter started to assemble around the amphitheatre in their bid day shirts holding banners and cheering. I spotted the junior from Auntie Em I’d spoken with the very first day walking with her little, the girl from my high school. Would I be joining them soon? I had told myself the day before that I’d be happy with either outcome but now I was certain: this was what I wanted and anything else would be a letdown. Eventually the first moderately exciting thing happened: rho gams gathered to reveal their affiliations. Just as they had done throughout the week they went through a cheer from each chapter, and when they reached their group girls pulled off their rho gam sweatshirt and revealed their letters. I already knew that was from the house that I accidentally labeled as a second Glenda, the one which should have been known as Scarecrow, the house with the Dave Matthews fan. My other rho gam was a Lion. There you go, you can’t judge a whole group from one encounter. I thrilled to realize that the rho gam I had liked so much from the other group that walked with mine and the one who had been outside the second party the day before were both Auntie Em’s. That made me feel even more confident in my decision if possible. After pictures and chants were exhausted rho gams pulled out something far preferable to the little zip lock baggies: stacks of crisp white envelopes with our names scrawled across…at last we were getting our bids. I looked around at the girls I saw. It was funny to think that each and every one of them was now a part of GLO, but none of us, save those few crazy souls who suicided, knew what house we’d be running to in a just a few minutes. Other than excited and nervous, there is no possible description I could give you which accurately descried every girl there. Myself and the 500 girls around me were the future of Oregon Greek life. And were about as diverse of a group as you could find on campus. Mentally I told all those naysayers with their stereotypes to suck it. I didn’t have to wait long for Darkwing to hand me my envelope, but in traditional fashion we wouldn’t be allowed to open them until everyone had theirs in hand. I blame the paper industry for the anti-climatic nature of the day: I could see through my envelope [and everyone elses, a word of advice: when a girl attempts to make a dramatic scene about not knowing which house she now belongs to, do NOT point that you know because you can see the crest through the cheap paper. Even when you don’t say which house it is people get awfully testy over the issue…]. And then we all had our envelopes in hand.
TEN.
NINE.
EIGHT.
SEVEN.
SIX.
FIVE.
FOUR.
THREE.
TWO.
ONE.
….
….
….
…
…
AUNTIE EM.
I’d like to tell you I ran to my new sisters. But the sheer number of girls trying to do the same thing made it impossible. A crowd of other girls holding bid cards identical to mine gathered around our letters and the actives began to lead us on the traditional bid day run. Which is fine and good if your house is right next to campus…but ours isn’t. Running soon devolved into walking and talking. I expected to freak out on bid day, but it wasn’t a feeling of excitement that overtook me, but rather one of perfect contentment. Recruitment was over. And I had ended up right where I had always meant to end up. Everyone else seemed to have similar attitudes and it was a pleasant walk, until we got within a block of our new home and followed the actives as they once more broke into a run. We were greeted outside by actives holding large paper hearts with a name on it, one for each of us. Our bid day shirts were adorable and even a month later I still have to remind myself not to reach for it every single morning. The evening was a blast. An overwhelming, mind boggling blast, but a blast nonetheless. I loved this house. I loved these girls. I loved the silly things they told us were bid day traditions, such as the president and VP of recruitment jumping into what may be the world’s grossest body of water in celebration of the end of recruitment. I spent so much of the night smiling that my mouth honestly hurt afterwards. There was no question in my mind: I was home.
And now I suppose you might want to know exactly where home is? Those who know Oregon have probably already figured it out… but I’m sure a lot of you are still wondering. And despite how slow I’ve posted, I’ve never been to the kind to drag things out….
So I’ll tell you right now….
That as of October 5th 2010….
I am a proud new member of….
GAMMA PHI BETA!
In case you have been wondering about my connection with the philanthropy, I’ve been involved with Campfire USA since I was 11 and spent part of the last year working for one their amazing programs. I can say with absolute surety that without Campfire USA I wouldn’t be who I am today, so it is only fitting that as I start my next likely life altering chapter I pledge myself to a sorority dedicated to supporting the organization which brought me where I am today.
As far as everyone else I mentioned, if you’re wondering:
SNOOKIE did receive the bid she’d been hoping for from Toto. It’s a great house and I’m sure it will do lots for her.
GIRL FROM MY HOMETOWN who transferred out of my school also ended up happy: she is now a Lion and by all accounts loving it. Good for her.
GIRL FROM PHILANTROPY ROUND, who I was double rushed with at Glinda joined Tinman. She was thrilled to receive a bid from her top choice as a sophomore.
GIRL FROM HOUSE TOUR DAY ended up as a Glinda. I haven’t seen her much but I believe she’s happy.
HUEY joined her sister as a Tinman. She had an agonizing decision after enjoying a great preference party at Uncle Henry, but knows she made the right decision and hasn’t looked back since.
GIRL FROM MY MIDDLE SCHOOL , I’m proud to say is joining me as a Gamma Phi!
And last but not least…
CHUCK NORRIS was apparently cut from the houses she came in loving, notably Scarecrow and Tinman, and I believe Uncle Henry as well. Just goes to show you that a recommendation [or 15 of them] can only take you so far. She joined Elphaba, something I never would have imagained given the “chill” nature of the girls, but from facebook stalking it would appear that she is happy there. Whether or not those predictions for disaffiliation come true…well I’ll have to keep you posted =)
Anyways, wrapping it all up, thank you to everyone who has read my story. After all the wisdom I picked up from GC I felt compelled to share my story and was thrilled to discover that I actually had an interested audience. The confidence boost you all have given me will last me to next year. And finally, and most importantly, t
o those of you lurking in the GC shadows much like I did for years thinking of your own future recruitment, I hope my story helped you most of all. I’d like to tell you that there was one thing I hope you take away from it in particular, one kernel of wisdom I’ve gained that will make your road easier, but truthfully recruitment and my pledge process thus far has been such a life changing experience that I’m not even sure where to start. Bearing that in mind I’ll give you just this one piece of advice regarding recruitment: do it. If there is any inkling of interest regarding Greek life in your mind, any longing for a place to call home and a community to rely on, put aside your doubts, your fears and your insecurities and take the plunge. You might find as I did that the waters are not what you expected them to be, perhaps a little colder. You might find that Greek life is absolutely not for you, in fact you might be 90% convinced of that fact now, but I’m going to say it again: take the plunge. Even if you don’t find the sort of amazing home that I did, something more important will 100% happen no matter what: you’re going to figure things out. In the end, as cheesy as it sounds recruitment has far less to do with finding your way home than it does with finding out more about who you are and the values you hold dear. Those of us on the other side of it [gosh that is still strange to say] can tell you all about it and dress it up, but you’re never going to really understand the value of the recruitment process until you have the experienced it for yourself…God knows I didn’t.
And with that I end my story GC. Thank you all for sharing this rollercoaster with me<3
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