A Mad Men re-rushing story

[33girl]

I can't see your pref dress unless you went wearing a red X.

[SC2013]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I can't see your pref dress unless you went wearing a red X.

I did! It was very memorable!

I went back and changed it, hopefully it's viewable now.

[*winter*]

So...are you done with rush? Nice outfits BTW! Must be somewhere warmer than where I'm at

[SC2013]

Originally Posted by *winter*

So...are you done with rush? Nice outfits BTW! Must be somewhere warmer than where I'm at

Yes, I rushed in August! And thank you

The next round was Slideshow Day! Out of a possible 4 invites, I received 3:

Trudy Campbell
Joan Holloway
Peggy Olson

I'd been dropped from Jane Sterling, which I was honestly surprised about not because of my potential? legacy status, but because I thought that I had found a real connection there and I got to know so many women really well the day before.

(By the way, my best friend who thought Joan Holloway would be a "significant drop" from Midge Daniels got dropped from both this round...she ended up joining Jane Sterling and so now my best friend is sisters with my sister! Actually, at bid night when a Jane Sterling found out from my best friend that we live together, she said "Oh my gosh! _______! I was obsessed with her! But I think she dropped us..." Panhellenic whoopsie?)

I was, however, extremely excited to go back and see Joan Holloway! I'd been curious about their voting process, considering I'd met 4 girls at all the other houses and only one at Joan Holloway, making it more Pref-like than House Tour-y, if that makes sense--which I truly liked a whole lot better.

First up was Trudy Campbell. Again, this house has the catchiest songs ever. My contacts were bugging me so I wore glasses at this party, and some girls looked at me kind of funny...(so after this party I definitely changed into contacts, but that was kind of off-putting). I was paired up with a new girl and led into the slideshow room. The theme is very cute and elaborate and the girls get really into it. I found lots of things about their philanthropy and chapter in general that I really liked or connected with and mentioned that to the girl I was paired with. They consistently get lots of Greek awards, are very involved, and as I'd noticed before, have a very strong sisterhood with very close big/little bonds. After the slideshow, I talked to a junior or senior and the conversation was kind of...pleasant. Somehow the next girl I talked to would not veer from talking about food trucks. I don't have much to say in regards to food trucks so...that conversation was a little strained as well. However, on the way out I saw many of the girls I'd talked to during House Tours and I waved to them, and the girl that was walking me out commented that I must know a lot of girls in the house. I felt a little disappointed leaving but I felt I could still "learn" from this house if they wanted to Pref me, because I didn't feel like I had gotten along with them AT ALL during Convo Days, but had a really great House Tour there, and maybe Pref could tell a different story too.

Next was Joan Holloway. I was paired up with a different senior girl than last time, she was really outgoing and asked me a lot of questions. It was great because I could tell that she wanted to know more about me and whether I'd be a good fit, rather than at Trudy Campbell where it was more up to me to ask questions and talking to so many girls felt like Convo Days v2.0. At Joan Holloway, again it felt very personal and Pref-y. We had a lot in common, even found out we had some mutual friends. As we walked down to the slideshow area, I think I'd mentioned my sister was in a sorority at another school and she asked me which one. When I said she was a Jane Sterling, she asked me when I was going to visit that house today and I told her I wasn't. I think she wanted to see the chances of me wanting their house over my sister's, which meant a lot to me since I want their house back. The slideshow room was really prettily set up but it wasn't deafeningly loud like at Trudy Campbell's. Anyways, through their slideshow I got to learn so much about their chapter. They're one of the consistently improving chapters that always wants to better themselves while still being nice to everyone. They've won first place in fraternity philanthropies consistently, are very passionate about their own philanthropy, and have great programming for girls within their house too. After visiting this house again it really reaffirmed my good instincts about this house from even before rush. I even liked the way they rushed PNMs, really focusing on getting to know a girl in depth. And their commitment to the Greek system here stands out above the rest to me, and that says a lot since our Greek system is huge and has a large presence. On top of that, though I'm serious about this house and undoubtedly the girl that was rushing me is too, we both got along very easily and jokingly. And I definitely could've worn glasses here and not gotten weird looks.

I'll give more about Peggy Olson in a bit. It's kind of an interesting story...

[BraveMaroon]

MORE!!!

Peggy Olson interests me because my house was smaller than average when I joined - and so sisters had to take 2 rushees the first round. And a lot of them found that off putting.

So, if you're a smaller house, you can't win! You can borrow sisters if possible or you can double rush - but either way, PNMs don't like it.

Hrrrm.

So anyway...MORE!

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More about Peggy Olson.

The pre-party revelation

There is so much negative tent talk about this house for no reason besides the fact that they are typically smaller than our ginormous other chapters on campus. But I had to admit...at this point I knew I had to be honest with myself.

Because of catty girls' unfounded comments (usually something like "I'm so glad I got to cut Peggy so I didn't have to see her for House Tours!" Why? Were they rude to you? Judgemental? No...because of our university's long Greek history, there are very definitive "tiers" on campus I really can't be bothered with because I know girls in every house and they are all really quite on par in terms of intelligence, friendliness, AND attractiveness as a whole so whatever frat bros want to shoehorn us into--well, I don't care), I finally realized that I had been using reverse tent talk with this house. Stay with me now.

Because I love a good underdog, and I hate it when anyone or anything is looked down on for absolutely unfounded reasons, I have always rooted for Peggy to do well. But during my break before this party, I suddenly thought, "What if my rush experience at Amazing Top House was just like it had been with Peggy these last couple days?"

And I realized that even if this was some kind of Stepford house with leggy bombshells floating around in their natural sorvironment, and every other PNM and their greatgrandmother's neighbor wanted a bid from this house, I would still not want to join this house based on my lack of compatability with this house emotionally.

And I felt so guilty admitting that to myself! I had for some reason felt the need to counterbalance other PNMs' shallow behavior by telling myself that, yes, Peggy Olson needed some love and yes, of course I liked this house even though, yes, I have to wrack my brain to come up with things to say here, and yes, I feel out of place and, yes, even a little scared to be myself in fear of off-putting or offending anyone's sensibilities here.

So was I this whole time discounting my own feelings by feeling sorry for a house? Did I kind of smooth over my lack of compatibility by thinking, no, this girl's just awkward, give her a chance and in three months of sisterhood maybe we'll have a pleasant conversation? Every time the past couple days that at Peggy Olson my gut told me "no, this isn't for you," I immediately felt guilty. I realized that finally. BUT I also acknowledged that they had invited me back for their Slideshow, so that I could learn more about their house.

The Slideshow
It felt like there was a meagre showing of PNMs outside, and lots of girls looking absolutely outraged that they had been invited back. (There were lots of elevator eyes and general harumphing.) I felt guilty again. Well, maybe more kind of pissed off...these holier-than-thou girls probably hadn't tried to make a connection with these girls...they probably tried to make it more difficult. Anyways, I felt like I'd probably be glad to meet another Peggy Olson to see if maybe I'd been wrong all along and my breaktime revelation was just me being stressed out and Red Bull-ed for too long...

When we walked in, my hometown friend jumped up in front of a different active to join me. I immediately felt a sense of relief. And then I immediately noticed that...shoot. I'd felt a sense of relief. But I wouldn't have to squeeze my brain like a sponge at this party, which meant that until tomorrow I could turn off from rush mode. The slideshow came on and my friend went to the aisles to join in on the dance...I was next to the aisle though, and nobody else was next to me in the entire row which I guess was good so I could focus on the slideshow, but I honestly don't remember much of it.

After the slideshow, my friend took me to the backyard where we sat at a patio table...maybe the same one I'd sat at on Convo Days with Other University Peggy. She asked me how my rush was going, and I sheepishly told her I'd had a really good day so far. She asked me what houses I'd seen and I told her.

And then.

She asked me, "Do you want me to get us to drop you?"

I was...shocked. Surprised. Guilty. Nervous. Also concerned about that this was like some kind of backwards dirty rushing. I was silent for a bit. I didn't know what to say. I knew what I wanted to say, and I just remember thinking, "Well...she suggested it....?"

Finally I said, my voice funny sounding even to myself, "Um, well...sure. I guess?" So she said she would put me down for the lowest score when she ranked me, and later she texted me that she would again. She was so...earnest.

So in the midst of my emotional rush week I suddenly was thrown a loop. I felt real bad. But I also knew that if it came to going to Pref here, I wouldn't be able to...do whatever girls do at Pref. Cry. Feel connected and emotional. I could just imagine myself, standing in a group of PNMs holding candles or something (I had no idea how it worked whatsoever), everybody's sobbing while I'm looking around awkwardly. Also, I would rather drop this house than Trudy Campbell, since I felt like I'd had an off day there rather than an off week here, so maybe we would be cross-cutting each other anyways? Also, my friend is a member of this chapter, after all! I hadn't mentioned any uncertainty about Peggy to her, just that I'd had a good day so far...if I could be a good addition to her house, wouldn't she try to talk up good things about her house rather than simply offer to cut me?

Man was I guilty. During break before the party I'd felt guilty for feeling sorry. Now I was sorry for feeling guilty. Or something. Dammit, recruitment!

However, needless to say, ranking my 2 houses for Preference were pretty simple. My other RC (each RC group has 2 RCs, and half of the group usually visits 1 of the 2 during computer ranking) helped me at the computer today.

She asked me what my first choice was.

"Joan Holloway," I must have said with a lot of certainty, because she said:

"I love it when PNMs just know and find a house that they really love," she was looking at me, smiling with a kind of proud approval.

My second choice was Trudy Campbell, and then of course Peggy Olson was my first alternative.

I felt an uneasy peace. I realized that I did feel a weight off my shoulders that I would be dropped from Peggy. So whatever happened tomorrow was meant to happen...right?

[I have a feeling this post is going to make all of you hate me! I'm scared to see your reaction but I think that as a PNM I did my best to give each house a fair and open-minded shot...right? Giving bias to the so-called "top tier" sorority while disregarding actual emotional connection is the flip side to giving bias to the so-called "lower tier" sorority out of indignant support...right? And was I reverse dirty rushed? Am I just a silly little girl who doesn't know what's best for herself??? (Yes.) Thoughts? Like I said, I'm scared to hear your thoughts but a major reason I wanted to share this story is to hear an outsider's insights.]