Since it's a little slow... my recruitment story!

[gee_ess]

I love that! Sounds like he is a really nice guy who the others could count on! I am betting that the Beverage Chairman was also highly revered!

[spirited*pnm]

Here we go with Skit Round! For this round I wore a pink cashmere V-neck sweater, a black pleated knee-ish length skirt, and tall black knee-high boots…and the requisite pearls from grandma

Ok, I was really nervous heading to my PX meeting to pick up my schedule, I just had a pit in my stomach. I saw my list and unfortunately Bedtime Bear and Friend Bear had cut me. Those were considered really strong chapters on campus, and I couldn’t help but feel that I hadn’t put my best frozen foot forward. I was a little crushed by this, but I still had Secret and Funshine where I had had great times during the second round. Although I was cut by two of my favorites, I did have a full schedule, so I couldn’t get too down. Good Luck Bear was not on my schedule either because I had cut them because I was so turned off by the I-shamelessly-flaunt-my-money-to-impress-people girl. Some PNMs in my PX group were surprised (aka thought I was nuts) I had kept Love-a-Lot over Good Luck, especially Nicole. How could I have cut such a popular house?! Her incredulity made me a little nervous…was Love-a-Lot really that undesirable?

If I remember correctly, Kristen still had Good Luck Bear (her legacy sorority), but did not have a full schedule. She was not invited back to Funshine, with which she had been slightly obsessed, either after Open House or House Tours. Lauren and Amy did not have full schedules either. Lauren was IN LOVE with Secret Bear, and I think it was on her schedule for skits, which made me excited because I liked them too! However, I did feel a little guilty expressing my disappointment about not being invited to Bedtime nor Friend when my friends did not have full schedules for skits.

Wish Bear
AMAZING SKIT. At the end of the day, this skit really stood out. I was extremely impressed. It seemed like they put a lot of work into writing the script and they executed it perfectly. Hilarious. The costumes were also really memorable. I really hit it off with one sister I met who was friendly, quick-witted, and down-to-earth (even though I’m kind of a space cadet sometimes!). The polished, preppy, and put-together recruitment chair came over to chat and she was sweet, warm, and easy to talk to. I feel like maybe her preppy put-togetherness may have been intimidating to some or turned off some PNMs, but I adored her! The only thing was…not many of the the sisters seemed like her, maybe a handful (I’m totally down with a diverse “look” or style, but when you’re a PNM you tend to want to pinpoint chapters). This chapter had been getting by on my list for not standing out strongly negatively nor strongly positively after the previous parties, but I had a better impression after this party, and I started thinking that I could see myself here especially since Bedtime and Friend were no longer options.

Funshine Bear
This skit was not impressive. I remember really WANTING to like it, and it had funny moments, but it was an overdone theme/characters, and quite forgettable. On the other hand, my conversations here were so memorable and I felt so welcomed and wanted. A was about 2 minutes late to this party, which I was concerned about esp. after what happened at Bedtime Bear…I desperately wanted to keep Funshine on my list for pref! However, the girl who greeted me at the door was from my state and I gave her a huge high five—I felt like this house wouldn’t judge me for something like that; I could just be me here. Loved talking to this home-state girl, and the next sister I spoke with who kept grabbing other sisters to come say hello. It seemed like whatever hobby/interests of mine that I told her about there was a girl in the house who she grabbed for me to meet. I remember telling her I really enjoyed photography, and she’s like, “Oh! Sally loves photography too!” and if Sally walked by she would grab her. (I just want to clarify that this wasn’t staged, they did not bump me, this girl actually happened to walk by exactly as we were talking about it!) I also just loved the other girls I spoke with. Conversation flowed naturally, and I felt like they wanted me there, and I walked out of the party with a lot of confidence, but I really did not want to get my hopes up. Also, I was worried about their skit not being very funny at all, I wanted to make sure I joined a house with a great sense of humor!

Laugh-a-Lot
This skit was just awful. I felt a little bad. It just seemed…flat and tired. This round dragged. However, I did like the sisters I spoke with, and I had good conversations, although I don’t remember specifics. I had a long conversation with a sister I talked with on the first day. I really liked her, but I wanted to meet more of them! I wish their skit hadn’t been so long, so that I could get a better feel for the chapter/other members! Then somehow the energy spiked during the chants on the way out of the party. This was really fun! I really didn’t know what to think after leaving. I had a feeling that they wanted me, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted them. This house was on Kristen’s schedule, and I remember at the end of the day her telling me how much she loved them, so maybe the skit actresses were just “off” when I was there? I was a slightly confused about how I felt here.

I wanted to get an update up ASAP, so those are the first 3 parties of the 6-party Skit Round…the next 3 will be coming soon!

[AlphaXi_Husky]

Yesssss, you're back! Keep the updates a-coming please!

[spirited*pnm]

Secret Bear
OH NO!!!!! I WAS SUPER LATE TO THIS HOUSE TOO!! (This place was so far away man…) I know this sounds bad, but why did this happen at the houses I really liked?! I walked in and the girl who I talked to with the crutches on the first day greeted me. I was just in time for the skit to start. She brought me over to another sister who already was talking to a PNM but we talked for like 1 minuted, plus it was a 2-on-1. Oh boy. I felt awful. I had loved loved LOVED the sister I had talked to the previous round and wanted to be my big, I was hoping she’d pull for me since I met like ZERO sisters this round. To add to my frustration and worry, their skit was THE BEST. #1. Hilarious, really catered to the specific humor of our school (i.e. funny references, campus pop culture kind of stuff). They were so into it and really went all out. Like they had no shame all out. When the skit was over, I guess the sister I was introduced to at the last minute forgot she was supposed to grab me at the end and just left me. Another sister came up and asked who was supposed to get me, but I couldn’t find her anywhere! This had been a house high on my list, but after that fiasco I didn’t know if anyone would be pulling for me when they made cuts, and conversely, I was left a little turned off by the way they handled it, even though it was also my fault for being late. (I just want to say here that I am usually a prompt person, I don’t think I was prepared to walk around so much in the awful conditions—seriously Recruitment 05 is legendary at my school for the bad weather we had, but more on that later). And their skit was SO GOOD, they had to be cool. I still realllllly liked them.

Love-a-Lot
Awkward. I definitely could not see myself fitting in here. I’m glad I had given them another shot, but there was just no way. I didn’t click with anyone, and I didn’t feel like myself when I was talking to these sisters. They seemed like they had a really tight-knit sisterhood and had fun together, but I couldn’t see myself being close with these girls--they just seemed a little distant in conversation. I’m not sure how to explain this, but the Love-a-Lots just seemed too…wholesome? Not that that is necessarily bad, but it was just a wholesome/innocent/goody-goody persona that each of the sisters I met seemed to have on. I felt like if I were a member of this house it would be hard for me to get close to them or to have deep/brutally honest conversations here (does this sound brutal?). They were just so NICE, that I even feel bad saying this. I did not want to come back for pref.

Share Bear
I was so exhausted by the time I got here (it kept getting colder and colder), that I was relieved to see that it was the sophomore sorority sister from Spanish class who was waiting for me! (Totally planned, I know, but I was excited.) I loved talking to this particular sister, I actually think she stayed with me the whole time but some others may have come over to say hi. She was in the skit too, which wasn’t “funny,” I’d say it was more along the lines of “crazy” or “nuts.” There was a lot of energy, and a lot going on. I liked talking to her, but I was unsure of this chapter as a whole. They fill a particular niche at my school and I wasn’t sure if I fit into that niche. Also, she was the only sister I had talked to thus far who I liked talking to. Nevertheless, this was my best experience at this particular chapter.

At the end of the day I was a little worried. I had some conflicted feelings about my two favorites of the day: Secret and Funshine. I SO wanted Secret to invite me back based on my awesome experience during house tours and their skit was hilarious, but this house was FAR, and I wasn’t sure about the lateness/no-one-grabbing-me-after-skit issues. Funshine’s skit was definitely not a stand out, but I had a lot of fun in my conversations and really hit it off with a good number of these girls. I was also unsure about where to place Share. My experiences the other rounds had not been stand out, but I did not want the sister from class to think she had done of bad job, because honestly, that was the best day I had there all week! I think rankings after skit day was the hardest of rankings for me. At the end, this is how the cards fell:

#1: Funshine, Wish, Secret
#2: Laugh-a-Lot
#3: Share
#4: Love-a-Lot

The next day I was in for some news for which I would not be prepared AT ALL…

[AlphaXi_Husky]

Oh man, you can't leave it like that! I am dying to know how things went.

[UGAalum94]

More please.

[twinkle555]

ahhh I must know what happens!! more more!

[tld221]

this is torture!


still rooting for Funshine. riding this horse out til the end! but i think Secret may pull a second.

[baci]

waiting for you...

[spirited*pnm]

The next morning I woke up excited that I was (hopefully) one step closer to being a new member of one of the great chapters on campus. I got out of bed and started to walk down the hall to the bathroom, but stopped at Kristen’s room where she and her room mate (who was also rushing) were chatting worriedly with a few other PNMs from our floor. Naturally, I poked my head in to see what all the fuss was about. Apparently the weather had severely deteriorated overnight, and there was talk of postponing preference round! Rumors were flying, some girls said the RA’s had gotten word, other girls said their PX’s had called or e-mailed and that apparently there was a deathly “frost bite warning,” where, if you had any exposed skin for 5-10 minutes, there was a severe risk for getting frostbite! Logically, 18-year-old girls who are stressed out of their minds+rumors+imaginations+awful weather news=PREF ROUND IS CANCELED! We had no idea what was going to happen. I got in the shower, and when I came back apparently legitimate news from our PX’s was that pref round was postponed for a little while in hopes that it would warm up later in the day. Additionally, the semi-formal dress for the PNMs WAS indeed canceled: we were allowed to wear warm clothes, jeans, sweaters, jackets, they even said that sweatshirts and sweatpants were OK! Let me pause here to inform you of the legendary, near-record breaking conditions that January…

The last 16 days of the month were 14 degrees colder than normal.
This was the 4th coldest Jan. in 20 years.
There were 12 days where the temperature was below 0 (pre-wind chill!).
The coldest temperature was -22 degrees on the 22nd, the coldest since 1/27/1994! (The 22nd was either pref day or bid day, don’t remember the schedule. And that’s pre-wind chill, are you kidding me!?!?!?)
5th most precipitation for Jan. in the LAST 127 YEARS! And the most since 1979.
Jan. snowfall was 37.2in, 19.3in more than the average norm.
3rd snowiest Jan. since 1879!!
7.9 inches fell on the 23rd!
Max. depth of snow on the ground was 17 inches.

Ok, at this point I seriously wanted to transfer! What had I gotten myself into!? Is this a joke?!!? Keep in mind that this was my first taste of winter up North. This was no joke. I hadn’t thought about actually having to go out in these conditions! And then smile and impress people I didn’t know!

So I slapped on some jeans, wore a cute sweater, grabbed a pashmina for extra warmth, and brought a change of heels in my tote. Now all I had to do was pick up my schedule from Katie and head off to my parties, trying to avoid getting frostbite on the way.

My schedule for the day:
Wish Bear
Funshine Bear
Laugh-a-Lot Bear

Man! I was so bummed Secret wasn’t on there. I told Katie, and she told me that the houses I did have were really good and not to worry about it. At the time, I was thinking that I wanted all 3 of my options to be faves and wanted to have a really tough decision that night, because then I knew I was sure to end up somewhere I loved! Funshine was still my clear favorite at this point, but looking back, even though I went into the preferences with a semi-clear idea of how I’d rank them, I was still ready to be persuaded by the sisters/preference conversations.

So in frostbite warning weather, in negative degrees, I trudged across campus to my first preference party. Little did I know that there was an even greater challenge I would have to face later that day…

[FSUZeta]

more please.

[BlueHenTheta]

you are killing me, seriously!

[UGAalum94]

Please tell on, tell on.

[UAwildcat12]

i love this story SO much! GO ON!!

[spirited*pnm]

Wish Bear
Lining up at the door to Wish Bear, I remembered to look around at the other PNMs there because they would be my potential sisters! They all seemed easygoing, generally cute, and friendly. Of course we received a warm greeting from the polished-put-together recruitment chair who was by now like my idol/role model, and she handed us something that would be a part of a ceremony we would participate in later. I wasn’t sure who would meet me here, I was thinking maybe my twin girl, but I was pleasantly surprised to see it was someone I had also spoken to earlier who was the EASIEST person to talk to/get along with! We talked about so many things, and there seriously was not a dull moment. I loved this sister, “Allie.” We had a great animated conversation, talked about everything, from music to siblings/families and beyond. However, I was thinking that I really wanted to be convinced/persuaded to be in this house, and the conversation at this house wasn’t the traditional “preffy” (if you will) conversation. Nevertheless I had a great time talking to Allie. All the PNMs and sister congregated in the living room and the recruitment chair and 1-2 friends told a hilarious story about sisterhood and how a girl chipped/lost her tooth one night and the antics, wild hilarity, and sisterly support that ensued. I really enjoyed this part of the preference party. There actually was no official ceremony (I like a little formality!), but I liked the sentiment behind a few of the symbols of the sorority that they explained to us. Allie poured on a lot of the “Hope I see you tomorrow!” stuff, so that made me feel wanted…I left this chapter feeling very pleased that I preferenced there, loving the sister who had preffed me, admiring their lovely recruitment chair, but still a little unsure about my match with the chapter as a whole; I wished Allie had worked on convincing me that this chapter was a good fit. Anyhow, I felt really comfortable here and was sure I would find my niche if I ended up joining this chapter.

Funshine Bear
I was NOT surprised to see “Caroline” meet me at the door here! We had talked skit day for a long time, and I *think* maybe for a bit at house tours. I had a great flowing conversation with Caroline too! We talked about traveling, vacations, how we were raised, etc. This conversation wasn’t particularly “preffy” either, until Caroline asked flat out what other chapters I was preffing (!!!). This kind of shocked me at the time, but Funshine was my FAVE house of the 3 I was preffing, so I just flat out told her! Surprisingly, even though I did like this house better as a WHOLE, I liked the sister (as an individual) who preffed me at Wish more. This was in the back of my mind the whole time at Funshine: I had genuinely liked every girl I talked to here, loved their style, vibe, etc., but at Wish I really hit it off with Allie (and could see her as a big!) yet I wasn’t sure about the rest of the house. Anyway, Caroline was great too, a little sarcastic, laid back, and a mature, big sister/mature vibe. She was someone I could see myself looking up to (she was really friendly, but slightly intimidating b/c she was in a sorority and I wanted to be, and also partly because of asking me flat out where else I was going for parties that day). I was beaming during the entire ceremony here, it was beautiful and formal, and the speeches made me/the other PNMs feel really wanted. It was so within reach! I think Caroline actually gave me a hug when she walked me out the door, and was incessantly saying how she hoped to see me tomorrow/soon, and I obviously said with a big grin, “ME TOO!” I so hoped I played it cool enough for Caroline!

Nicole from PX group was at Funshine for Pref too, yet she was a little unsure about them, she felt like she couldn’t pinpoint the image of the chapter (I actually liked this because there were tons of different and interesting people to meet here!). She was driving to Good Luck Bear and gave me a ride to Laugh-a-Lot because they were near eachother.

On my way into Laugh-a-Lot I ran into Kristen who had just been there. She had preferenced there and at Tenderheart Bear. She asked where I was coming from and I told her Funshine, but then felt a little bad because she had not been invited back there and had had an irrational “thing” for that chapter since first semester. Amy and Lauren had dropped out of recruitment.

Laugh-a-Lot Bear
I wasn’t surprised that “Brittany” greeted me at this house! We had talked for extended periods of time at all rounds. She was a senior, and I remember being a tiny bit disappointed that I was going to talk to her again—I wanted to talk to sophomores/younger sisters and we had already talked SO OFTEN! However, she was a sweetheart. I remember a few lulls in the conversation, but this was the third round and we were probably both tired and ready for it to be over. Two sisters got up in the middle of the round and told a cute story about an adveture/sisterly love like the Wish Bears had done. This story actually made me like this chapter a little more—I think the problem here was that they hadn’t BLOWN ME AWAY at any of the other parties, and I hadn’t met a lot of different sisters. This story gave me a little more confidence in this house a whole, but I wish it hadn’t come at the ultimate end of recruitment! There was no formal ceremony here either, but we did participate in something on our way out (if I said it would give it away!) It was actually beautiful, but I wish it had been more formal/informative/special. I left this house thinking that I’d probably put them 3rd, but then again Kristen had gone there too…
After preference parties Panhel actually gave us time to go back to the dorms (I honestly don’t remember why, maybe for dinner??). It was only a quick break, and I remember finding Kristen and walking to our meeting places. She said she was thinking about suiciding, (excuse me, “single preferencing”) Laugh-a-Lot. I didn’t try to convince her one way or the other.

The snow was coming down hard on our walk, and we got to some shallow slate/flagstone steps that led down into an arcade/courtyard area of one of the dorms. These were COVERED in snow. I should have sledded down them. Seriously, there were non-PNMs all over campus lugging sleds behind them, either coming/going to go sledding! There was so much snow. These steps had not been shoveled or salted, and while Kristen was telling me about her day, I totally wiped out on one of the steps. There was no step to step on! It was just covered with snow! My lower back hit the edge of the step, and I felt shooting zinging pains down my left leg. I started bawling and seriously yelping in pain, trying to tell Kristen that I COULD NOT GET UP. But we had to make it to our PX meetings to fill out and sign our pref cards!! I tried to get up, but the pain was excruciating. GREAT. So Kristen calls her PX and calls Katie for me to let her know that I was injured and might be a little late.

So I found that with Kristen’s help, I could hobble to my meeting. When I got there (tear-streaked and upset), the other girls were already getting started. Katie was so kind and understanding. The other PNMs in my group were really sweet and concerned too, I remember hoping that some of them would become my sisters! I filled out my card quickly so that I could go to the campus medical facility to get my back checked out.

#1 Funshine
#2 Wish
#3 Laugh-a-Lot

I just wanted to get out of there. I remember hoping and praying that Funshine wanted me, but seriously distracted. I called my mom and I called the medical place, but apparently THEY WEREN’T OPEN BECAUSE OF THE “BLIZZARD CONDITIONS.” Are you kidding me?!!? I started bawling to the nurse on the phone, what was I supposed to do? She told me that the nurses and doctors couldn’t drive to the infirmary because of the awful weather conditions, and that she was just the 24-hour-on-call nurse. She suggested that I go to a nearby medical facility place (not exactly a hospital, but a smallish multipurpose facility). But seriously, if nurses and doctors couldn’t get to campus, how was I supposed to get THERE?! Oh lordy, this was a mess. Then the wonderful Mackenzie from my PX group offered to give me a ride to the place that was about 15 minutes away. Mackenzie, the angel.

Anyways, Kristen and I got there safe and sound, and after some X-rays and other prodding, the diagnosis was that I had broken my back and had deep tissue contusion. I was to take Vicodin for 2 weeks, and limit my activity. HA! I was supposed to start my new member period and classes started in 2 days! And during all this I was hoping and praying that Funshine would be on my bid card the next day. WHEW! What a day!