Before attending the University of Maryland, I had many preconceived notions of Greek Life on college campuses.
If someone met me during the spring semester of my senior year of high school, I would have told them that I would never even consider rushing a sorority, no matter what college I ended up at.
When I committed to UMD, I still had no intention of joining Greek Life. The only person in my family who had been a part of Greek Life was my brother, so I did not have any knowledge of what the recruitment experience would be like, let alone what being a part of a sorority would be like.
However, throughout the beginning of the fall semester, I started to reconsider my original decision. Many of my friends talked about signing up for recruitment, which made me start to think about signing up. I met people in my classes who were already in sororities who talked about their experiences in their respective sororities, which made me want to sign up even more.
I signed up for recruitment before the end of the fall semester and was nervous to go through the recruitment process in the spring. I asked myself, “What if my outfits aren’t as good as other people’s?” or, “What if I say something really stupid?” However, during that week of recruitment, while in the back of my mind, those thoughts never became overbearing.
There were definitely parts that were frustrating, humbling, and tiring, and I would be the last person to say that I would want to go through that weekend again as a Potential New Member, or PNM, but as someone who would consider herself an extroverted person, I genuinely enjoyed just talking and having conversations with people. I learned a lot about myself during that week that I would not have learned if I hadn’t gone through recruitment. I learned what it actually meant to be myself.
And while it may not be like this for everyone participating in primary recruitment, I personally felt that the experience was incredibly rewarding. From sorority recruitment, I found not only a chapter I truly love but also people I consider my close friends. I met multiple people during recruitment who did not end up in the same chapter as me, but who I still talk to.
A year ago, I would never have guessed that I would be where I am today. But I think that is a good thing. As people, our perspectives and outlooks change as we undergo new experiences. Being closed off from doing something without knowing the perspectives is incredibly restrictive. I am so glad I went out of my comfort zone and tried something new.