Hi! Sooo I haven't even been near a computer all day, and figured y'all would be ready to hang me by now! Thanks for hanging in their with me, haha.
I had another sleepless night and full day of classes before Pref Night. Everything about this night was different. I remember very clearly what I wore-- a black strapless dress that tied in the back with a bow, and black peep toe heels with my grandmother's pearls.
Pref ceremonies at our campus were actually held off campus, with buses to take us to the locations. The year I went through was the last year they did things that way. None of the PNM's knew where we were actually headed to, although we were (fairly) certain that we weren't going too far (and we were right-- most sororities stayed within two or three miles of the school).
Instead of the usual slips of paper with our schedules printed on them, we got real invitations. It was obvious that the sororities put a lot of time into writing our names in calligraphy. It added a really personal touch.
I was relieved to see I had two different invitations, as did Alex. She had been worried about getting cut from either sorority, since she only had two left.
I opened my first envelope at the same time that Alex opened hers.
"The sisters of
ORANGE cordially invite you to our preference ceremony."
I still felt a little sick. I didn't really care about
ORANGE at this point. I had a one track mind for
LIME, and felt sure that the girls loved me as much as I loved them (that sounds so much snottier than I mean for it to, haha).
I dropped my
ORANGE invitation and tore open the other one as quickly as I could. I was relieved, though not necessarily surprised to read:
"The sisters of
LIME cordially invite you to attend our preference ceremony." I could have cried, I was so excited. Alex was excited to be asked back to both
PURPLE and
SLATE, though we were disappointed that we had no chance of being sisters.
We each boarded a bus to take us to our ceremony. My first stop was
ORANGE. To my relief, the bus stopped at a historic church downtown. I think I half expected to be dropped off in the middle of a forest somewhere. All of the PNM's in our dressiest clothes filed off the bus and waited outside. And waited, and waited, and waited. It was forever before our Rho Gamma's escorted us inside the building, where we lined up in alphabetical order just as we had every other night. Finally, the doors opened and a line of
ORANGE'S came out to meet us, one by one. I was greeted by my freshman experience leader. She handed me an envelope and a flower, and took me to a table. She explained that inside this flower was a pledge pin, and that nothing would make her prouder than to see me wearing it. She said that I could carry it around for the night, but that I had to give it back before I left and I could have it back during my pledge experience. She sounded so certain that I actually
would be pledging that I started to believe I would, too. Then she handed me the envelope and told me it was a letter she had written to me. I opened it and read some of the sweetest words about friendship, sisterhood, and how she saw so many
ORANGE qualities in me. I got a little emotional reading it, and so did she. She took the card back and said that I could have it when I pledged, too. The seniors gave speeches, and there was soooo much crying. I felt really touched by it all. One girl I had talked to earlier in the week came up to me and told me that I had been her "rush crush" all week, and that she couldn't wait to see me run out to them on Bid Day in
ORANGE colors. We also participated in a candlelight ceremony outside in the courtyard, where all of the sisters sang and held arms with us. It wasn't long before I had to hand over my flower and pin and board the bus for my next stop:
LIME. I left feeling really touched and so terribly confused. My head said that
ORANGE was the right choice, but my heart was saying
LIME. I really hoped the next pref ceremony would clear things up.
Several minutes later, the other PNM's in my group and I were at the
LIME house on a neighboring campus. It's a truly beautiful house, definitely one of the nicest on this particular campus. Once again, we waited and waited before we were allowed inside. I was met at the door by Girl#1 from my hometown. She got a few things to eat (I didn't-- I had heard horror stories about girls who got cut for taking too much food. Ridiculous, but remember how naive I was). She told me all about how important her sisters were to her, and how she already felt like I belonged there, and how she couldn't wait to put her letters on me on Bid Day. And then, fate intervened. I had one of those moments that can only be attributed to exhaustion and confusion-- a total word vomit moment, for all of you who have seen "Mean Girls." She asked me where else I had preffed, and I told her. She remembered hearing that I was a legacy there (still not really sure how she knew this, because I never told her). And then she asked me if I had made a decision about which one I wanted to choose. I told her that I really, really loved the ceremony at
ORANGE and that I was really confused about where I wanted to be, although I knew that
LIME was still my favorite. I have no idea why I told her this. I guess exhaustion and stress and nerves make me completely honest. She got a funny look on her face, but didn't say much else. I knew immediately that I had said something wrong, but I tried to cover my tracks by repeating how much I loved her and how I wanted nothing more than to be a
LIME. I didn't write much else about the ceremony there. I remember all of the girls singing to us, but overall, it wasn't really as sentimental as the ceremony at
ORANGE had been.
When we left, we were told to be completely silent. Not so much as a whisper was allowed for several hours while we waited to rank the chapters for the last time. Only one computer lab was opened, with something like 12 computers in it, so it took a really long time to get all of the girls through. Meanwhile, I had a long heart to heart with my Rho Gamma about my dilemma. Even though I 110% wanted to be in
LIME, I had also fallen in love with
ORANGE and was afraid they would hate me if I didn't pledge them. She assured me that this wasn't the case, and eventually I made it to a computer rank.
I selected
LIME first, followed by
ORANGE.
Alex told me later that she had similar feelings about
PURPLE and
SLATE... she felt a really strong pull to both groups, although [COLOR="rgb(47, 79, 79)"]SLATE'S[/COLOR] ceremony had touched her a little more. She eventually ranked
PURPLE first, and
SLATE second, but her reasoning was that
PURPLE was a much more prestigious group. More about that is later in the story...
I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach all night long. I just felt really uneasy about the whole thing. Our Rho Gamma was supposed to bring our bids to our room no later than 8 the next morning, so we got very little sleep that night.
Bid Day comes tomorrow!! Sorry to make y'all wait again, but I've got lots of family things to do tomorrow, so it may be late again before I get to a computer. Thanks for being patient with me.
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