My Retro Recruitment story

[IrishLake]

more soon please!

[DubaiSis]

I think we're going to go out for an Iftar dinner, and then I'll post the rest after. Now, I have to decide whether we go to the tent at the Atlantis on the Palm or just to a restaurant buffet. Expensive but cool or cheap and easy? And speaking of that, only 4 more nights of Ramadan. Woo hoo!

[When Doves Cry]

Actually, now (after reading the 2nd post) I"m not so sure..

[DubaiSis]

For Preference night, I had PADFOOT and Belatrix. I was HORRIFIED that I didn’t have a full schedule. What kind of a loser would they all think I was? I was so embarrassed that I’m sure I didn’t tell anyone, and my roommates were oblivious, so they didn’t notice that I was not on the same schedule as EVERYONE else. If I’d just talked with the other girls on my floor more, I might have been able to deal with this whole process a lot better and realize I certainly was not alone. This is the only part of having my roommates participate in rush that would have been helpful. You’d end up talking through the whole process more. Or, I could have talked to my Rush Counselor or any of the 30 girls on my floor, but I was not the most open angst-ridden teenager on the planet, so I suffered in silence.

PADFOOT? Meh. I saw them every day, and they were fine; nothing memorable through the whole week. In fact, literally, I don’t remember anything about the house except preference night. They were doing the mushy pref thing and some girls were really caught up in it and I was pretty much like, get me out of here! I’m not a crier (ok, I am a crier NOW, but at the time and in that situation, it was NOT going to happen) and I thought it all looked a little overly dramatic.

At Belatrix, the ceremony was so beautiful and the girls were all so sweet, and I loved what they were saying. I’m still all but certain I didn’t cry, but I WAS moved by it all. So at the end of the night I went back to my dorm floor (we didn’t go to a central location…. No computers would have been involved anyway) and ranked our pref houses and gave the form to our Rho Chi. And then it occurred to me that I might not get my first choice. WHAT? Holy Crap. Did I say the right things? Did I do anything to offend them? Oh My God. I need to go back and re-do all of rush so that I can get this right! I didn’t suicide against PADFOOT because I was smart enough to know I’d be fine there too. But it was an out house, and not only that, it was a FAR out house! Almost the furthest out there is! And the colors? GACK, the colors. This was horrible! How was I ever going to get to tomorrow afternoon before I found out what house I was in – IF ANY! Oh my God, I could be cut by BOTH houses! What am I going to do if that happens?

All of my lack of worry about what I was doing, what I was saying, how I was presenting myself, hit me like a ton of bricks at 10:30 at night on the Sunday before I started my first day of college the next morning.
So the next day I was able to muddle through. Thankfully you don’t really DO anything the first day, right, except get your syllabus and book list and then try to find your next class on this huge campus.

Afternoon came, and my rush counselor knocked on my door with the little envelope. Hold my breath. Open the card. BELATRIX!!!! Woo hoo!!!! It’s over, and I lived! So I ran down to the Union, found my new sisters and off we went to the house. I couldn’t have been happier, although I had a very strong sense that some girls were not so happy. Alpha Xi Delta (Belatrix) was one of the smaller houses on campus, and although we’d gotten a respectable pledge class (30 out of a quota of 40), some girls had clearly gotten their last choice. In looking at my pledge class picture, there are a couple girls there who none of us can remember. I don’t know if they just made it long enough to pledge and bail or if they lasted a few weeks, but they were gone by the Dad’s day photo. Still, we had a good pledge class, and to this day I am friends with several of them. And there’s one that I might well cross the street if I saw her coming.

Over the next 4 years, I would occasionally think about what would have happened if… What if I’d not been a complete moron at Dumbledore. What if I hadn’t shown up to Ginny drunk (and probably still a little drunk at Hagrid and Hermione), what if I’d done better during Welcome and hadn’t been cut by as many. Would I have cut my beloved Alpha Xi Delta? Molly’s friend at Luna said she didn’t realize I’d gone through rush or she’d have given me a recommendation. If she wasn’t such a flake, how would that have thrown off the entire rest of my recruitment? I was DEFINITELY not Luna material, but I’d probably have gone back there since they were the most popular girls on campus, only to be cut after Welcome Back.

So that’s the story of a girl who thought she knew enough, who didn’t have a clue, who should have done some homework, and should have just relaxed more and not let this process exhaust her so, but who also found the perfect home once she finally got into a REAL conversation

[When Doves Cry]

Our NMOC my junior year made our Bid Day shirts in "Padfoot"s colors. They were so ugly, none of us ever wore them again after that day. I wore mine to bed. And once to paint in

[ISUKappa]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

My sincerest of apologies! I get SICK TO DEATH of people not being able to keep Iowa and Iowa State straight, so I feel your pain.

The feeling's mutual. Do you know how often I've said I'm an alum of Iowa State and they go "Oh, The Hawkeyes, right?" And I'm like Uh, No.

[DubaiSis]

My husband does it STILL, just to abuse me. It doesn't help that many many families in Iowa are "mixed." My brother-in-law and nephew are both Cyclones. I've nearly come to terms with that.

[AZTheta]

DubaiSis: the bar is now set impossibly high, I can't even take an approach shot.

*applause*

Well written, kept me engrossed and wanting more more more.

ps: in-state rivalries are certainly powerful, aren't they?

[DubaiSis]

especially in the big states in the middle!

Thanks for the warm comments. Really, if you just write how you think, you can get pretty close. But then, I'm the kind of person who thought I had it easy in college because I didn't have tests. I just had a paper due every 3 days. No problem! My mathy, sciency friends couldn't fathom anything more stressful. One semester I literally didn't have a text book. I read 17 novels. Yes, 17. In 1 semester. Full disclosusre, I don't think I was required to FINISH all of them, because at least one of those books was The Executioner's Song which is about 8 bazillion pages.

Some day if I get motivated, I'll post a story I wrote while in college about Greek life. My professor said if I wanted I could turn it into a screenplay. I don't think it stood the test of time, but you might think it's funny.

[thetygerlily]

Originally Posted by AzTheta

DubaiSis: the bar is now set impossibly high, I can't even take an approach shot.

*applause*

Well written, kept me engrossed and wanting more more more.

I believe in you. Do it!!

I would but I already wrote one, sadly without this kind of inspiration.

[AZ-AlphaXi]

Originally Posted by AzTheta

DubaiSis: the bar is now set impossibly high, I can't even take an approach shot.

*applause*

Well written, kept me engrossed and wanting more more more.

ps: in-state rivalries are certainly powerful, aren't they?

I believe in you to ... if you just write what you feel it will be great!!

[thetygerlily]

Originally Posted by AZ-AlphaXi

I believe in you to ... if you just write what you feel it will be great!!

*cough cough* And another Alpha Xi retro too, perhaps?

Wow, I really am shameless this week What can I say- I'm a glutton for badges and recruitment stories with happy endings!

[Blue Skies]

Loved your story. Thanks for sharing it, DubaiSis!

[BraveMaroon]

In re: snack hazards...

One year we did Jelly Belly beans for our skit snack - I felt so bad for all the ladies leaving our house with tye-died tongues.

Though, I left the Theta house during rush with popcorn kernels lodged in every crevice. Charming!

[DubaiSis]

It's all a trick to know who's PNMs are going to what houses, leaving evidence in everyone's mouth!