My Colorful West Coast Recruitment Story

[elle1776]

Hello everyone!! With so many schools in the middle of recruitment right now, I’ve decided to put up my recruitment story ! My school was rather large and on the West Coast. I was a junior transfer but wasn’t worried because I had a high G.P.A and the school that I was going to actually has a large upperclassmen quota. I read blogs and GreekChat stories for months, practically studied what to say and what not to say, and bought the perfect outfits. Once the time came, I knew that I was ready to have a successful recruitment and find my future home!

My school had 12 Panhellenic sororities that year and here were my “thoughts” before starting the week. I realize now that I was influenced a lot with “ranks” and what my friends that had gone to the university before me thought that I should be in. It was a huge mistake on my part to take other people’s opinions as more valid than my own, looking back I wish I had relaxed a lot more during the week and stopped worrying about “tiers.” However, even though I was influenced by “tiers” I was never EVER rude to anyone in the chapters. I felt lucky to be invited into their homes and loved how sweet and welcoming everyone was.

I love colorful pictures and paintings so I’ll name my houses after colors!

RED: I knew about their philanthropy and had worked with an organization similar while I was in high school.
BLUE: This house has (in my opinion) the prettiest house on the row. It’s absolutely gorgeous.
GREEN: This was the newest house and I didn’t think that I would fit in with this chapter.
PINK: I was really excited to meet the women in this chapter. My neighbor was in this chapter at a different school and wrote me a letter of rec. I saw (through Social Media) that they had a lot of cheer/dance girls and it looked really appealing to me as a fellow dancer. One of the main social media accounts had followed me at the beginning of the summer (which now I realize is a big no no), but I felt super excited and special at the time thinking that they wanted me.
ORANGE: This chapter had an amazing philanthropy that was close to my heart.
TURQUOISE: I was really excited to meet this chapter as well. For some reason I just really liked the “vibe” that they seemed to give off on their social media accounts. I had a close friend that was the previous president of her chapter and panhellenic at her school write me a letter of rec. HOWEVER, this chapter had a lot of girls that were friends with my ex-boyfriend. He had gone to the school previously and after a nasty/immature breakup, he became friends with a lot of them. I really hoped that he hadn’t said anything about me that would sway their opinions negatively.
PURPLE: My best friend wrote me a letter of rec for this chapter but I didn’t know much about them.
GREY: This house was known as the sporty house because of all their athletes. While I wasn’t sporty in the least, I still hoped that I would be given a chance haha.
BROWN: I didn’t know anything about this house.
LAVENDER: This was the “top house” on campus. They were all beautiful and poised. A lot of them had amazing internships in the industry that I was hoping to get involved in and I was really excited about the connections that this house could bring.
CYAN: This house didn’t have the best stereotype and was considered the “party” house.
NAVY: This house wasn’t holding formal recruitment this year and their nationals was hoping to rebrand without leaving campus.
Off to day 1!!!

[ChioLu]

Looking forward to reading more!
Pretty sure I know the university. ; )

[elle1776]

DAY 1

We were going to visit all 12 chapters today and everyone in my Rho Gamma group knew that it was going to be exhausting. But, we were all so excited and we headed off bright and early with our Rho Gamma to start the day.

RED : Since this was the first party of the day I was super nervous. I had read so much about recruitment that once I was actually there it seemed surreal! The girl who picked me up though was super sweet and we were able to have a funny conversation about how tired we were and then Zac Efron haha. The house was decorated really beautifully. Their goodbye song was super catchy as we were leaving, and it was stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

TURQUOISE : Once we got to the second house I felt a lot more calm. I was grabbed at the door by a girl that had done pageants with the same organization that I had. We didn’t know each other but had a mutual friend and immediately hit it off talking about pageants. Another girl came over and we had both been cheerleaders and talked about everything to do with that. I felt SO welcomed here and walked out of the house feeling like I had found my home.

CYAN: After walking out of TURQUOISE I was in such a good mood but it was dulled by this house. The girls were sweet but seemed very monotone at the same time. They were giving off more of an edgy/cool vibe rather than bubbly and the girl I talked to only wanted to talk about herself which was kinda of off putting.

ORANGE: My fourth house of the day was ORANGE. I was picked up by a super peppy and sweet girl and was taken into the back T.V. room which was super quiet and air conditioned. I had a really nice conversation with the first girl who picked me up but when another active came over and the first girl didn’t leave, I felt super overwhelmed by both of their outgoing personalities. They were both trying to talk to me at the same time but with different conversations and I was so confused haha. They both walked me out to the door when it was time to go, and I left feeling like I had had a tornado of a conversation.

PINK: Then we went to one of my favorites. I was super nervous and wanted to make a good impression. I was picked up at the door by a beautiful active who had a great sense of style. We talked about fashion and trends before one of the dance team girls came over. She was the captain of the dance team and we talked about competing and football games before it was time to go. I left this house beaming.

GREY: We then headed over to GREY. The girls I talked to in this house were very laid back. They were dressed pretty casually and gave off a very boho vibe. They were all really welcoming though and one of the girls I talked to was really awesome. She kept hyping me up when I was talking about what I wanted to do for a career. I’m telling you this girl could’ve been a motivational speaker.

LAVENDER: By the time we got to this house I was exhausted. The president and recruitment chairs were stunning and when they opened the doors some girls actually said ‘wow.’ Their house was decorated in a really cool theme and seemed a lot more done up than the rest of the houses. The three girls I talked to here were very sweet and I felt like I had good conversations, but I felt intimidated by their reputation and was constantly thinking I wasn’t good enough during the conversation. (Not a good way to feel when looking for somewhere your comfortable with haha)

BROWN: This house was gorgeous I was sat in their formal living room which was really beautifully decorated and a lot quieter than the rest of the house. The conversations kinda fell flat here though. They felt a little awkward and I just couldn’t relate to the girls that came by. A girl did come by that I had met at the club fair the day prio and said hello which I thought was really, really thoughtful.

BLUE: This house was SO beautiful and really decorated nicely. The girls I was pair with and I had a lot in common. One of the girls was in one of my classes. We talked about how that class was part of our minor and how weird the teacher had been the first day. Overall I really enjoyed this house.

NAVY: We then went to the house that was only participating in the first round of recruitment. Their nationals was there and they gave a presentation about how they were “rebranding” and gave a speech about their philanthropy. The active girls handed out water and they seemed really sad that they weren’t able to recruit this year. I left this house feeling a little upset for them.

PURPLE: By the time my group got to this house it was pretty late at night. Starting at 8 in the morning and now having it be so late was really killing all of our energy. Nonetheless, I gave it my all in this house and pulled out whatever pepI had left in me haha. While the girls seemed interested, the conversations were really awkward. The girls would pause and then ask a drastically different question rather than carrying on the convo that we had been having. We would be talking about zero week at first and then suddenly they would ask me a question like “who’s your celebrity crush” I felt like I was being interviewed rather than connecting.

GREEN: Last house of the day!! I only talked to one girl in this house. We talked about musicals and connected but I didn’t feel like I would’ve fit in with this house.

I then went to rank and ranked them
1. TURQUOISE
1. PINK
1. LAVENDER
1. GREY
1. ORANGE
1. PURPLE
1. CYAN
1. BLUE
2. BROWN
3. RED
4. GREEN

[elle1776]

Day 2: House Tours

After a much needed sleep I spent the day relaxing on campus. When my call time finally came around 2:30, I headed over to the row to get my schedule for the day from my Rho Gamma. I was super nervous because I honestly had no idea what houses I would get back. I got my schedule and it said.

-Turquoise
-Pink
-Purple
-Cyan
-Brown
-Green
-Red
-Blue

I was so so happy to have my top two choices, Pink and Turquoise back!! However, I scanned for Grey and Lavender and was disappointed when I couldn’t find them. I thought that I had really good conversations with both, but looking now I realize that I wouldn’t have meshed perfectly with them anyway. Orange had been such a confusing and random party that I didn’t even realize they were gone until I double checked again. Oh well! I was happy that I had a full schedule for the next day as a lot of girls in my group didn’t and were pretty upset. Even with the upperclassmen quota, my Rho Gamma group (all of us were juniors/junior transfers) had taken large cuts. After comforting my friends I headed off to my first house.

BLUE: I was picked up by a girl at the door who had the same major as me! We talked about all of the requirements, how hard it was going to be, our schedules etc. She was really nice and I enjoyed talking to her! The another girl picked me up and took me on a tour of the house. We had some small talk but I remember the housing being mostly a 20+ sleeping porch which (at the time I wanted to live in the house my senior year) did not seem appealing to me.

RED: I then ran to the next house in my wedges! I was on almost the complete other side of the row and with all the PNM traffic, I just barely got there on time. I was excited to see this house again even though I had ranked it low the day prior. I was picked up at the door by an active who grabbed the other PNM behind me. Walking in I noticed that I matched the actives completely (same color dress and shoes) and it cracked me up but at the same time I remember feeling really uncomfortable about it. Kinda like walking into a party and realizing you have the same dress another person times 140 haha. The active tried her best to talk to both of us at the same time but really failed with it. I felt like I was the active for a good portion of the conversation. I knew that I did not want to come back here tomorrow.

CYAN: While I didn’t have the best conversation at this house the day before I knew that this house (while being the “party” house) was well liked on campus. I tried to tell myself that not every girl fit this stereotype and headed in hopeful. And I was so glad I did!! The girl I was paired with was absolutely amazing. We bonded on so many levels within just a short conversation. She was a junior transfer as well and we talked about traveling, being older but still feeling like a freshman, and so many other amazing topics. I absolutely loved this girl and wanted to talk to her the entire party. I was a little disappointed when another active came to give me the house tour and we didn’t really click. She seemed really over recruitment and only wanted to talk about date parties and the bars. Which was totally okay! I was 21 at the time and I mean who doesn’t like a good date party? But it worried me that partying really was the only thing on this house’s mind.

PURPLE: I wasn’t super excited about this house going in just because of the previous day’s conversation but I was so so excited when I was paired with a girl that I clicked with immediately. We had been on the same type of dance team in HS, did pageants, she was a junior. She was so fun and bubbly and I really liked the house tour she gave as well. This party went really well and I left feeling super energized.

BROWN: I headed over to BROWN and was given a house tour by a sweet girl. I remember thinking that the house seemed a little cramped and most of the rooms held a lot of girls. I was then grabbed by a different active who I talked to for probably not even 5 minutes before it was time to go. She walked me out and gave me a big hug right before I stepped out the doors (which I was not ready for after just meeting her 5 minutes ago haha).

GREEN: Even though this house was the newest on campus, I still wanted to give them a second chance and an open mind. They didn’t have to invite me back and I was happy to see all that every sorority had to offer. However, the girl I was paired with did NOT seem like she wanted to talk to me at all. I was talking to her and noticed that she kept looking over my shoulder. I glanced over too and here’s pretty much how our conversation went.

Her: “Oh sorry I keep looking over your shoulder that girl over there looks like my old dance instructor.”
Me: “Oh that’s cool! You used to dance! I dance too! What kind of dance did you do?”
Her: “Wow she really does look exactly like her. I should go over there and say hello once we’re done talking. Anyway’s what’s your major again?”

I was cracking up at just how awkward the conversation had gone. That plus another active being rude to me while on the house tour made me feel so upset. I knew that I did not want to come back the next day.

PINK: After the horrible party at GREEN, I was excited to head over to PINK after the exciting day I had yesterday. I was picked up by a senior who had been a junior transfer. She told me that they always took really big transfer classes (around 15 or so) and that they all hungout with the seniors that had been previous junior transfers and how fun it was. Some girls came by to say hello that I had talked to the day prior, which really made me feel so welcomed. Then the sisterhood chair came by and we talked about sisterhood bonding events that they had in the past. We had a great conversation before another active, who I really connected with as well, came by to give me a house tour. I once again left this house feeling so happy.

TURQUOISE: After a long day, I was ready for house tours to be over but was so excited to be invited back to this house. A sweet sophomore picked me up and gave me a tour. Their house was one of the biggest and all of the rooms had just 4 girls that lived in them. We talked about sisterhood events and formals before she led me into a room to say hello to the President and Vice President. I felt a little intimidated being in a room by myself with three actives (especially 2 that were on exec) but they were super welcoming and mentioned that they had heard great things about me from the first day. I’m not sure if they did this to every PNM in that party, but I felt super special anyway. I loved this house and knew that it would possibly be my home.

I then went and ranked

1. TURQUOISE
1. PINK
1. PURPLE
1. CYAN
1. BLUE
2. BROWN
3. RED
4. GREEN

[ChioLu]

Great that you got the max 8 invites. Ready to read more!

[AnchorAlum]

I love your details about each house! It sounds like you're having a good rush, so good luck the rest of the way!

[elle1776]

Day 3: Philanthropy/Sisterhood

I was exhausted. I felt like I hadn’t slept at all the night before from nervousness. I knew that I really wanted my top choices and would definitely be a little disappointed if I got my schedule that afternoon and didn’t have any. My rho gamma group had slowly gotten smaller as well. There were a few that decided to drop for various reasons but there were also many extremely sweet and well rounded girls that had been dropped from the process entirely.

I headed over to the row and was surprised to see just how many girls were upset this day. SO MANY girls were in hysterics because they only had one house left, or only had their bottom choices. It was honestly terrifying for me haha. Not only was I nervous to see my invites, but I just really didn’t expect so many girls to be sobbing at a school that isn’t necessarily known to be a “Greek School.” I had read about it at really competitive schools, but to see it here increased my stress at seeing my results. It really just shows how 1. Bad it is to fall in love with just one house before recruitment and 2. To look at a “tier system” or take other people’s opinions into consideration of how good a house is.

I finally reached my Rho Gamma and she gave me my schedule.

BLUE
CYAN
PINK
PURPLE
TURQUOISE

AHH I WAS SO HAPPY!! I got back my top 5! I was ecstatic and was absolutely pumped for the rest of the day. (Looking back now, even though this was philanthropy and sisterhood round the emphasis was really placed on sisterhood. I don’t remember talking about philanthropy with any houses. Only two of my houses showed a video/gave a super short presentation but the conversations after never dove more into the details of what they did, which was different than what I was expecting.)

BLUE: My first house of this round was BLUE. I went in super excited. This house had been super wonderful to me all week and even though it wasn't necessarily a house that was on everyone’s radar, I really liked the women here. I was picked up by one of the executive board members and she took me to their beautifully decorated patio/backyard. She was an absolute gem. We didn’t necessarily have anything on the surface in common like majors, hometowns, etc. but we immediately connected. I don’t know what it was but I felt like I had known her for years. We were laughing and joking around and even talked about some semi-serious stuff like bad breakups. I just felt so comfortable at this house. Another girl, which happened to be her little, came over to say hello and took me to where they were going to show their sisterhood video. I watched their video with the other PNMs while the actives stood around us watching it too. They were dancing and laughing and overall just having a really good time. I was having fun too but something about their video made me look around the room and really feel like I wouldn’t necessarily fit in with this house. I don’t know what it was exactly, the type of video it was or maybe I started to think about the “tier” this house was (so so so dumb looking back now), but something changed by the end of the party and I left feeling not so great even though everything had gone super well and I had a great time.

PURPLE: I headed over to PURPLE and was picked up by a really bubbly girl. She immediately sat me down to watch a video on their philanthropy which was super sweet and made a few girls around me tear up, but I wasn’t feeling it. They then showed their sisterhood video and I just kept thinking to myself that I didn’t really want to be at this party. I just felt awkward again with the video and the actives dancing around while we watched. I probably sound crazy but this house, while I had ranked it higher and had better conversations than the houses I ranked low on previous days, had not been my favorite and I was feeling it now. Everything just wasn’t clicking personally. After the video I talked to two more girls. They were really sweet again but I never got the feeling that they were genuinely interested in me. At this house I just felt like a number.

CYAN: Walking into CYAN I was grabbed by an executive board member and we had such a great conversation about animals and our pets. We started to talk about fun sisterhood events that they were going to have when another active came over. This girl was bubbly but also gave me a ditsy vibe. I honestly can’t remember what we talked about, but before long she told me it was time to go watch their video. As we were walking over she was walking ahead of me when she turned around, super super quickly, and accidentally smacked me right in the face with her hand. I was kind of stunned at first, not because I thought it was rude I totally knew it was an accident, but because it kinda hurt haha. She immediately started apologizing but what I thought was upsetting was that the other actives (who had been lined up without PMNs to watch the video) laughed when she had hit me. Now it could’ve been a nervous laugh, but it came off as kind of rude and I honestly got a little upset. My active sat me down in a chair in the back row when, not even 10 seconds later, a different active comes up to mine and says “Uhh I was going to sit my PNM there can you move her.” Like what?? There was another chair open and instead of this girl moving her PNM to the open spot she wanted me to move. So my active lead me all the way over to the other side of the room to this open chair. Maybe I was being overdramatic, but the combination of being smacked in the face, having actives laugh at what happened, and then being moved after I was already placed, just really made me upset. I held back some tears during their video and was really happy to be led out at the end.
-Side note: As the actives had stacked in the door and were doing their goodbye song there was a sudden shuffle as if someone was trying to get out. Suddenly, a PNM was thrown (like literally pushed, I’m not over exaggerating) through the actives and the president, who had been holding the door, slammed the door shut in the middle of the song. The girl had probably been in the restroom but we were all so confused and were definitely feeling sorry for this poor girl.

PINK: I was so excited for this house and I felt so happy that they had decided to invited me again. The recruitment chair gave me a hug at the door and said how happy she was to see me again. I was picked up by a girl who is bestfriends with one of my best friends. We had never met because we only had one friend in common, but we shared the same hometown and so many other interests matched. She was amazing and gave me a big hug before a senior (who had been a junior transfer) came over and we started chatting. She was so cool and I really saw her as a role model for who I wanted to be at this school. She was involved, had a similar major and was just cool. She said how much she loved me and I saw her as a potential big even after meeting just a little bit before. Girls from previous days came by to say hello as I was led over to watch their sisterhood video. This time I didn’t feel awkward as the actives shouted and danced while we watched the video, I felt at home. I didn’t want to leave but soon it was time to go and I left this house, for the third day in a row, beaming.

TURQUOISE: I was on a high from PINK and couldn’t wait to go into this house as well! I was picked up by the cutest active who lead me to watch their video afterwards we went to another room to sit and talk. We talked about the Bachelor and clubs, formals, honestly we talked about everything like we had been friends for years. Another girl came over and we clicked right away as well. The president and recruitment chair both came over at separate times also to say hello and I really felt welcomed and happy when it was time to go.

Walking over to rankings I knew immediately who I wanted to have for Preference the next round. PINK and TURQUOISE had been my favorites all week and I was practically glowing over the thought of being in these two houses. However, I knew that nothing was 100% and that how I ranked my other houses was extremely important as well. It was really a toss up between PURPLE and BLUE. CYAN was definitely not my favorite after that last party. While I had a great time at BLUE on the other days, today was I left feeling weird even after it being fun in the beginning. However, I had only liked PURPLE the day before and didn’t like it much on day 1 or today. I knew I should put BLUE down in my number 3 spot but I just couldn’t shake the fact that they weren’t really a super wanted house. I feel so dumb looking back and realizing that I thought like this now but at the time I felt so pressured by my friends to be in the cool house and the popular house. So I ranked them…

1. PINK
1. TURQUOISE
2. PURPLE
3. BLUE
4. CYAN

[sigmagirl2000]

looking forward to hearing how this resolves!

[KerriMarie]

Oh no, CYAN, what are you doing?!

[honeychile]

*tenterhooks!!*

[ChioLu]

Originally Posted by KerriMarie

Oh no, CYAN, what are you doing?!

The only excuse I can come up with — and I think I know which sorority and it’s not the one I advise — is that a PNM was in the bathroom at the end of the party and the members were singing, blocking the door with stacks and the PNM couldn’t get out. All PNMs must be out of the houses at a specific time or the house gets a steep fine. (There are at least 2 Panhellenic reps in front of each house to regulate things like this.) Maybe they were cutting it close to being fined and someone panicked so they RUDELY got her out by shoving her out the door. I hope that PNM didn’t rank that house high!

[elle1776]

After a quick break for a football game, it was finally the day everyone was waiting for: Preference Morning and Bid Night. I was honestly the most nervous this day. Going from 5 houses down to 2 could be either really great or really bad depending on what order you got back. I was a nervous wreck as I got ready that morning. It was so hot, I was exhausted after such a long week, and nothing with my hair and makeup seemed to be working. I honestly just wanted to sleep, but the excitement of Bid Night later that night and being with all my new sisters was keeping me going. I put on my dress, grabbed my heels, and headed across campus to the row. I found my Rho Gamma and my group and talked with some of the girls as I waited for her to find my schedule. She finally found it and it said

TURQUOISE
PURPLE

Wait. Where was PINK? I didn’t understand. They had introduced me to so many of their “top” actives, I had a letter of rec (not too common at this school), they followed me on Instagram! How could they not invite me back!? To be honest, I was super upset about not being able to go back to PINK for their preference round. At first I felt a bit played. I thought that with how they treated me all week that I was going to be on their steps at Bid Night. But now I realize that they are an excellent recruiting chapter that makes everyone who walks into their house feel like how I did. That’s why they are so popular and have high return rates. I was just so upset that I wouldn’t be able to be a part of their large transfer classes and have the experience that I had conjured up in my mind over the summer when they had followed me. However, I still had TURQUOISE and that house had also been one of my favorites the entire week. I called my mom, held back a few tears over the loss of PINK (something about my mom’s voice can make me cry the second she asks me what’s wrong) and headed over to TURQUOISE. I was determined to have the best Preference party there was and have this house know that they 100% wanted to give me a bid.

TURQUOISE: We all stood outside and nervously waiting for the party to begin. When it was finally time, a group of actives walked out in all white and started singing a beautiful song about their sorority. Actives who would then be preffing would step out of the group, say a little bit about the PNM coming in, and would lead us inside. My active stepped forward and I immediately recognized her as one of my friends from pageants that had grabbed me on the first day. She said how much she had loved getting to know me better on day one, some of my accomplishments, and how she couldn’t wait to talk to me some more. I was led in and the house was decorated so beautifully. The President and Recruitment Chair were there again and gave me the biggest hugs. Even without a name tag they knew my name and said how happy they were to have me back. My active took me upstairs to a balcony that was set up with roses and beautiful centerpieces. The balcony was super crowded and loud however and didn’t really give me an intimate preference vibe. She told me that the letter on the plate was for me and that I could read it real quick while she went to grab our refreshments. The letter was from a girl I had talked to the day before and it was so sweet and I teared up a bit before I was brought back some orange juice and a donut. I wasn’t really hungry because of how nervous and hot it was outside, but I took a couple nibbles while we talked. We discussed a little bit about how recruitment was such a long week and how tired we both were before I mentioned that the exhaustion of the week had really made me miss home and my family. This is where the conversation, while it had been going good before, suddenly became a bit awkward. I was trying to connect to this girl on a little bit more of a deeper level, I didn’t bring up my family in a sad way but figured (since it was true, I was pretty homesick) that instead of talking about surface level things like how we had, we could chat about some other stuff. I didn’t get crazy awkward, but after that point she changed the subject and I felt like I had done something wrong after I brought it up. It’s hard to describe. She then led me down to their living room where the president gave a really tear-jerking speech about how someone close to her had passed away recently and how her sisters had been there for her. Everyone was crying and it was a really moving speech. I decided that I was just being dramatic about what had happened earlier, one little conversation blip wouldn’t change an anyone’s opinion after such an amazing week. She was probably just tired and it had been SO hot where we were sitting. She was also a sophomore, so I could’ve been the first person she had ever preffed. They began singing a farewell song and we took the “gift/token” that was given to us at the beginning of the party, made a wish, and placed it onto a sculpture that they had. I walked out knowing that I wanted this house

I headed over to PURPLE even more nervous than I had been when the morning started. I just felt like I hadn’t “done enough” to win over the girls at TURQUOISE. Even though technically they were supposed to be trying to impress me, the girl that preffed me seemed like she didn’t care too much.

PURPLE: This house took every PNM in together and led us over to their patio. They gave a short speech before actives stepped forward and said our name and a little something about us (pretty much the same as the last party) and led us to where we would be preffed. I was paired up with a girl that I had talked to on the first day. I didn’t remember much about her and was nervous that we wouldn’t connect. She took me to a table with cake pops and sparkling apple cider and guided me upstairs to a private room with A.C. (I was so thankful for some A.C.). I sat on the bed and she sat on a chair and we started talking about more surface level stuff. She was really sweet though and I could definitely feel that she was happy I was there. She read a letter about how her sisters had been there for her after she came to this school from out of state and it was nice. We talked some more about family but the convo still stayed surface level. She never asked me anything deeper. Soon it was time to head back downstairs to hear some speeches. The actives stood around us in a circle as we stood in front of them. A girl gave a speech about how a family member had been abusive to her her entire life and how this chapter gave her the strength to stand up to what was going on. It was an extremely sad speech and so many girls around me were crying, but I just felt a little uncomfortable. I looked around the courtyard and barely recognized any faces like I had in TURQUOISE and in previous houses throughout the week. I just wasn’t feeling it and as I tried to picture myself standing in their position the next year, I couldn’t see it. It was soon time to go and we once again took our “gift/token” to their centerpiece they had and made a wish. I wished that I could be given the chance to be a TURQUOISE.

I walked to rankings and easily put in my choices

TURQUOISE
PURPLE

I began the walk back to my dorm and called my mom to tell her how it had gone and I just started sobbing. The exhaustion and stress of the week had caught up to me and I just really deep down in my heart knew that I wanted to be a TURQUOISE. PURPLE had only thrilled me with one girl the entire week. And while I knew that there were probably a ton more girls exactly like that one girl in PURPLE that I would like as well, everything I had experienced just hadn’t won me over like the other houses that week had. This was also the time I wish I hadn’t listened to the rankings and had put down BLUE for Pref morning. Those girls and I had gotten along way better and I liked their parties more than I had with PURPLE but I couldn't get over their rank. My mom calmed me down from my episode. She told me to just relax and that the girls at TURQUOISE had really seemed to like me all week. It was up to fate now to decide where I would end up.

[ChioLu]

Hoping for Turquoise. Crossing fingers.
Figuring out several of the chapters.

[sigmagirl2000]

please post the rest, especially since this is a completed recruitment..... looking forward to seeing where you found your home

[elle1776]

After a short break to get lunch and somewhat unwind, it was finally time for Bid Night. I was so so so nervous I couldn’t stand it. I walked over to a ballroom where they were having us meet up with our groups. I was so sad to see how small our little Rho Gamma group had gotten over the week. So many amazing girls decided not to continue or were dropped and it really broke my heart. Then there were the girls in my group who had gotten all of their tops back for the week and were acting like they were only joining for the most random reasons. One girl literally said that she was only joining to get a discount on car insurance haha? Okay girl okay you do your thing, I’m looking for some sisters over here haha. We walked into to ballroom and sat down so Panhellenic Exec. could give their speeches and the Rho Gamma’s could reveal their houses. Mine ended up being a CYAN and it made so much sense to me that she was one. She finally handed us our bid cards to hold and they started to count down.

10-9-8 I opened up the corner of my envelope and just waited.

7-6-5
I pictured myself running home to TURQUOISE and throwing up their sign surrounded by my new friends and all the amazing women I had met the past week.

4-3-2


1!!

I ripped open my card and saw








































PURPLE


To say that I was disappointed would have been an understatement. I was absolutely devastated. So many girls around me were screaming and bouncing up and down and I just wanted to go back to my dorm room. I felt so conflicted because I was definitely upset but I didn’t want to seem ungrateful. It was a weird mix of emotions to feel all at once. Holding back tears I called my mom really quickly in the midst of the chaos to let her know what bid I recieved. She knew that I was very upset and asked me what I was going to do. I sighed and wiped a couple of tears away and told her that I was at least going to try it out, even if it was just for bid night. I didn’t want to be rude and not even give this house another chance, they obviously had saw something in me that made them want to extend me a bid so I wanted to try at least. Besides, I figured that there would be someone waiting at the house to be my Bid Night buddy and I pictured how sad she would’ve been if I hadn’t shown up.

I hung up with my mom. Ran over to where the other PURPLE girls were and put on my Bid Night shirt to run over to the house. Once we got there I was surprised to see that there weren’t any girls holding signs with our names on them like there were at other houses. Us new members were left to kinda hangout and mingle on our own around the house. Not knowing anyone, and not having any dorm friends there with me, I kinda stumbled around trying to socialize with taking some pictures. An active I recognized made eye contact and she came over to say hello before leaving to hangout with her friends. Let me just say, Bid Night can be an extremely intimidating and awkward night, and not having an active there to show you around and hangout with you made it even worse. A group of girls came up to me as I was taking some pictures with a small group and asked me if I was a freshman, when I said no they seemed a bit disappointed and left. Oh okay that was random? (I later found out they were a family, ggbig, gbig, and big looking for a freshman little to claim that night.) We were then gathered into their patio and had a frat group come and serenade us and give out roses and we were then pinned by a randomly assigned active. A different active came over and finally invited me to come over to her friends. We chatted for a little bit before it was time to head back.

Walking back from the house I took a backwards way from the usual pathway all the other new members were taking back from their houses and finally had time to let out a few tears. I felt horrible. Horrible because I hadn’t gotten TURQUOISE and horrible because Bid Night hadn’t even been fun. I was just extremely disappointed with the process and how everything had turned out. And then at the same time, I felt ungrateful for feeling this way. So many women had been cut the past week, I had a bid and yet, I felt so sad.

And this is where my story takes a bit of a turn. Over the next couple weeks I threw myself into the New Member process. I went to meetings, sat with girls in class, went to some mixers, and studied at the house, and yet it still just wasn’t clicking. All of my transfer friends had gone to other houses with big transfer classes and my house didn’t really have one that year. I was definitely sad about missing out on that experience that I had wished for.

One night I was driving home from running an errand when I got into a car accident. While I was okay physically (Rest in Peace to my poor car) I was mentally shaken. I began having serious panic attacks that would prevent me from doing almost anything. Any little thing could set me off and my mental health began to drop. That, compared to the homesickness I had been feeling, made me extremely distant and I began to grow apart from the few friends I had made in PURPLE. I finally talked to a counselor and she supported my idea of transferring so that I could be closer to home and could have my family there with me as a support system. I called the New Member Educator later that day and formally dropped from PURPLE. That next week I withdrew from the school.

Over the next year, as I waited for my transfer applications to go through, I sought more counseling for my panic attacks and they helped immensely. I applied to the same school I had been at again, and another school closer to home. I was accepted into both and decided to not return to the school I had been at. It was an extremely hard choice as this had been my dream school for so many years but I knew that it would be best for me to pick the school near my home.

That summer before classes started for my new school, I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to join a sorority anymore. I wasn’t sure if I could handle the stress and nervousness again but my mom (honestly she is an angel in disguise) knew how badly I had wanted to be one and have all the experiences that come with one. In September I started at my new school and started the rush process once again….

PART TWO COMING SOON