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My story is a little different, and I am pretty late to Greek life, but here goes:
When I went off to college, I was very anti-Greek. I thought all the stupid things that people who don't know better think -- like you're buying your friends and all that. So I did not rush my freshman year. I ended up becoming best friends with a woman I had met at orientation, and she was in a sorority and seemed to have a lot of fun with it, so I decided that maybe it wasn't so bad and I went through rush sophomore year.
Even though I was a sophomore and my best friend was in a sorority, I had absolutely no clue about how it worked. I didn't know anything about the different organizations or anything about Greek life. However, I ended up falling in love with one house, and through all of rush I really only had eyes for that one house. It wasn't my best friend's house, either.
You're probably expecting me to say that the house of my dreams cut me. They didn't, and I ended up pledging there. Well, the problem was that as it turned out, it really wasn't the house of my dreams. The women I met during rush were really cool, but I really wasn't feeling the sisterhood at all. I didn't click with any members of my pledge class, and I didn't have fun at any of stuff I did with the house. I just didn't like it, so I depledged after probably a month or so.
That was my sophomore year, and I didn't think about Greek life again for the rest of college. My friend ended up dropping out of her sorority as well (for other reasons) and I had a fulfilling, happy college life without being in a sorority.
That's not the end, though. At age 30 I heard about alumnae initiation (here on greekchat, of course, which I discovered by accident while surfing the net one day) and thought that it sounded really cool. I knew it wasn't the same as joining in college, and that I would never have the experiences that collegiate members have. However, I re-discovered the desire to be a part of a sisterhood, and wanted to do all the things that one can do as an alumna -- attend alumnae events, help out collegiate chapters, etc. So, I started the process of pursuing alumna initiation, and at age 31 I was initiated into Alpha Phi. I may be older than the typical new sister, but am so excited to have the opportunity to be a part of Greek life now, because it's true that membership is for life.
Sometimes I'm sad that I missed out on the collegiate experience, but overall I think that the path I took was the best one for me, because I feel like I am where I really belong (and Alpha Phi was not the group that I pledged in college).
So Blazercheer, whether you end up going Greek next year, or the year after, or as an alumna, or never, I wish you the best!
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A hiney bird is a bird that flies in perfectly executed, concentric circles until it eventually flies up its own behind and poof! disappears forever....
-Ken Harrelson
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)with extracurricular stuff during my freshman year except what my parents told me was ok-- they did not want me to get overwhelmed and get bad grades...so I was just "allowed" to be on the women's swim team, in Helenes (the university's official hostess group), and in ROTC, which I really enjoyed but found highly embarassing since after all it was Southern California and it was 1972 and Vietnam was dying down, and antiwar sentiment was pretty high....anyways I knew nothing about sororities when I entered USC so I did not really care that I missed rush. When I was a sophomore, I had decided that I really wanted to be in sorority but I had also joined the band (I was a flag girl, now called Silks, I think) anyways, band camp was during the exact same time as rush and in order to go with the band on its historic first-ever trip to Notre Dame, you HAD to go to band camp...so I did, thinking I could go thru spring rush...unfortunately, I did not care for the sororites that had a spring rush so I did not do it. My junior year, band camp only overlapped a day or two with rush so I did both. I knew that rushing as a junior -- not to mention an ROTC cadet & a band geek to boot -- might mean the kiss of death and in fact I know I was dropped for at least one of these three reasons (mostly it was the ROTC that killed me) by nine of the then 13 houses at USC -- but I ended up exactly where I fit the best even though it took awhile to get me there! I am so freakin' loyal to Gamma Phi now because they truly did not care about me being in ROTC or the band or a junior! Since I only had two collegiate years as a Gamma Phi (and because I feel happily beholden & loyal to Gamma Phi), I have become a Type A+ alum!!! And my experiences have been even more rewarding than I had imagined! So I agree with the earlier post about alum initiation as another way to get in a sorority -- though you will miss out on the college fun, I cannot tell you how sappy I get when alums of all ages are together enjoying our bond of Gamma Phi...
Hybrid Mode
