Pledge brothers/sisters

SiKeS · #1 06-28-2004, 05:52 PM

Strictly hypothetically, what if your first impression of some of your pledge brothers/sisters wasn't so great? Have any of you experienced this? What happened after getting to know them better?

-Matt

Rio_Kohitsuji · #2 06-28-2004, 06:01 PM

Oh, do I have a story!!

When I pledged we started out with 4, we ended with 3.

There was this one girl named "J", she was a pain and a half. When we first all met (the first activity) we got to talk a bit. Well, that's when she informed the rest of us how much she hated the TKE's on campus. That was not smart seeing that I and another pledge sister are both Sweethearts of the fraternity. I mean...she bashed and bashed the guys...oh lord we hated her. Funny thing is that she only knew ONE of the guys...and she based her entire opinion about them due to him. (and he's not that bad of a guy either) Also, she thought that just because she hung out with them (the sisters) a bit more they would be easier on her. That got on everyone's nerves big time.

Thankfully there's a clause that if majority of your class dislikes another pledge sister you can blackball them yourselves.
We enacted that first thing.
She ended up leaving after that semester and quitting school..oh well! Oh..and she loved to skpi activities and blame us for stuff.

My other pledge sisters..well...I loved them the first time I seen 'em!!

ETA: The decision to blackball a fellow pledge sister is also in conjuction w/the actives. Basically the class goes to their pledge mom w/the problem pledge. They watch her a bit, etc. Then it can be enacted if they see fit. Also, pledge classes are around 2-5 people, not 20-50 like many of you have, so you -have- to get to know them So, if you let that one "problem person" in, they can be a problem once their active (sororities here are 5-15 in number).

CardinalSM · #3 06-28-2004, 11:20 PM

I have experienced having pledge sisters that I didn't know too well and didn't have a good impression of. There was a group of girls in my pledge class that were big city girls into partying and everything and I came in as the small town naive freshman. They had already met everybody and hung out with all the fraternities and I just had heard about them. I remember on bid day being like "holy cow, how did I end up in the same sorority as them, we have nothing in common" all of them ended up being great girls, one depledged and another transfered but 2 other pledge sisters I have lived with for a year and will be living with again in the fall and they are some of my closest sisters. Shows that first impressions can be very wrong! (Especially since they thought I was shy and intimidating, sure fooled them!)

Nobody ever said that you have to get along with everybody in your sorority/fraternity. This is really important to remember! You all will have a common bond through your ritual and your love for your organization. I would do anything for anyone of my chapter sisters, but there are some that I like and get along with better than others. There are some that I don't get along with, but will always respect simply because they have the same love for Chi Omega that I do.

recentASAalum · #4 06-29-2004, 12:02 AM

There was a girl in my pledge class whom I didn't get a very good first impression of. At our first pledge meeting she was already questioning stuff. She depledged about two weeks later. I see her around campus sometime and she gives me dirty looks. It's kinda weird.

CarolinaCutie · #5 06-29-2004, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Rio_Kohitsuji

Thankfully there's a clause that if majority of your class dislikes another pledge sister you can blackball them yourselves.
We enacted that first thing.

Wow. I can't even imagine. I would think that kind of undermines the active sisters' original decision to extend the girl a bid. Is this something that's happened in the past, or were you one of the first pledge classes to do that?

I tend to think that what CardinalSM said rings true.

Nobody ever said that you have to get along with everybody in your sorority/fraternity. This is really important to remember! You all will have a common bond through your ritual and your love for your organization. I would do anything for anyone of my chapter sisters, but there are some that I like and get along with better than others. There are some that I don't get along with, but will always respect simply because they have the same love for Chi Omega that I do.

Not that I'm judging, I'm just saying that I think I might have lost a couple good sisters if I would have been able to kick them out during our pledge period. Guess I'm slow to warm up to people

IvySpice · #6 06-29-2004, 12:53 AM

Actually, among my friends, the one who had one of the worst Greek experiences had it because she did not like her pledge class. During rush, the GLO did an excellent job of matching her up with the few members of the org who fit her well (intellectual, politically aware, sarcastic humor), all of whom were juniors and seniors. She liked them, and she didn't read much into the fact that her friends were all cut by that sorority, while girls she had nothing in common with were getting invites. (It was a big greek system and lots of friend groups ended up in different GLOs.) She pledged that group and found that her entire class was made up of girls she'd never choose to be friends with (very popular, expensive outfits, good time gals). She didn't realize that her experience in the group would overwhelmingly be with her pledge class, not with the women who were recruiting her and were about to graduate. To make a long story short, she stayed in the group for the parties, but her attachment to it was and is virtually nil. She said she wished she'd gotten firmer advice to look past the seniors' hard sell at pref and think hard about the other rushees in the room...

thefarns233 · #7 06-29-2004, 12:58 AM

I absouletly hated one of the guys in my pledge class..

This kid was a big drinker and everything he seemed to say annoyed me and was against everything i was about. We would have to do leadership activities and we would always butt heads on what we should do or the best way of going about something. I just thought to myself, "who is this kid?".. and "how'd he even get in here!"..

But, after all that our pledge class went through and after we got intitiated, i think he is one of my best friends and i am glad to call him a brother..

awww shucks, im getting all emotional, lol

preciousjeni · #8 06-29-2004, 02:02 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Rio_Kohitsuji
Thankfully there's a clause that if majority of your class dislikes another pledge sister you can blackball them yourselves.
We enacted that first thing.

I've always been told that you don't have to be best friends, but you do have to work together with love for the sisterhood.

steelepike · #9 06-29-2004, 02:06 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Rio_Kohitsuji

Thankfully there's a clause that if majority of your class dislikes another pledge sister you can blackball them yourselves.
We enacted that first thing.
She ended up leaving after that semester and quitting school..oh well! Oh..and she loved to skpi activities and blame us for stuff.

not saying that it is bad you did that but the class before me tried doing that and they got in so much trouble from the chapter.

HotDamnImAPhiMu · #10 06-29-2004, 07:54 AM

We had seven (including me) in our pledge class, and man was I a bitch to one of the other girls.

I was SURE that Kirsten was a drug-addicted slut, and went so far as to consider turning in my pledge pin (which brought my big sis to tears -- I was her THIRD little, and none of them had yet been initated -- no fault of hers! One's parents had made her depledge when they saw her grades, one transferred, and then me.)

Anyway, my mom's epileptic, and I was in a car accident, and I left the chapter the next semester. That drug-addicted slutty pledge sister of mine? Turned out to be one of the best sisters my chapter ever had. Not only was she neither drug-addicted NOR slutty but she loved Phi Mu every bit as much as I did, and had a ton to give to the sorority.

She graduated last May with her degree in (I think?) social work, and now she owns a house w/ her (I think?) fiancee. We haven't kept up much -- it's been 3 years, almost 4!

I'm still very ashamed of how I acted towards Kirstan the first few weeks of pledging. NOT at all true to the words, deeds, and spirit of Phi Mu. I am so, so lucky that the active sisters looked past the words of a vapid pledge and choose to rely on what they knew that I didn't -- and why they'd chosen her in the first place.

If I could smack my 19 year old self now, I would.

Geez, one more reason my GLO taught me so much...

AOTTAdvisor · #11 06-29-2004, 01:58 PM

Well, this isn't exactly the same but when I pledged AOII, about half of my pledge class lived in these three big adjoining dorms(and I lived in a dorm pretty far away), so they already knew each other pretty well and I just had this first impression that I would never be close with them, because they already were all friends. LUCKILY, they reached out to me and 3 or 4 of them became my closest friends and I still remain very close to a lot of my pledge class. But I definately walked in there with an attitude of "if they don't like me, that's fine" instead of "wow, these girls are AWESOME".