I’m not going to lie. On multiple occasions, I questioned my sanity. How badly do I want to be in a sorority?
I dreaded hearing the Rho Gammas say “2 minutes! Take off your jackets!” It was freezing. I am an incredibly cold person to begin with; so as you can imagine, standing outside in a cocktail dress was not quite my cup of tea.
I have always been looking forward to joining a sorority. Actually, it upset me that I had to wait a full semester in order to join. My mom rants and raves about her extremely positive experience with her sorority in college; and I want to find suitable bridesmaids. Just kidding…but not really.
In hindsight, I’m glad I did have the full semester to get accustomed to being a freshman in college. There were times when I just got bored, wishing I had something to do. I probably focused too much on grades (if that’s possible) and was ecstatic to have earned a first semester GPA just a few hairs lower than my high school GPA. Honestly, I wanted to start having the true college experience. You know, the kind you live vicariously through by reading tweets from TSM.
Aside from the superficial benefits of being in a sorority,(Lilly Pulitzer prints, anyone?) I really wanted that core group of girl friends who I knew would always be there for me- to go out to dinner, go out, or just stay in and watch chick flicks. I left my best friends at various other in-state schools in my decision to go to Tech and hadn’t quite found my niche with friends during my first semester.
So, aside from spending winter break reading The Hunger Games trilogy and pinning endless cookie recipes on Pinterest, I went on a few major shopping sprees. I was armed with a specific list of clothing to wear for each night of recruitment. In typical girl fashion, I could not possibly wear any item of clothing I had already worn. I went all out and was completely organized for each night (I even had my hairstyles planned).
I packed up my car and left home a few days early so I could begin recruitment. I was a complete nervous wreck; but who wouldn’t be? I’ll admit, I’m not usually one to put myself out there. I don’t consider myself very outgoing. I’m one of those people where it takes a little while for me to warm up to you before I open up. As you can imagine, I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to carry on random small talk for hours on end in an attempt to find my new sisters.
Granted, I started my days with lots of coffee and kept myself awake with mints and gum. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that many spearmint hard candies in a period of days as I did during recruitment. Every morning, I stocked up my Longchamp bag with my mints, makeup, hand sanitizer, lotion, and Chapstick. Oh, and not to mention I wore multiple pairs of socks, a huge scarf, jacket and mittens…only to be taken off 2 minutes before the beginning of the party.
Looking back at this rant, my complaints seem so trivial. During that 2 minutes that I was completely hating life waiting for those sorority doors to open, I had completely forgotten the true reasons I had chosen to join a sorority in the first place. Now, I could not be happier that I spent so much time with the other girls going through recruitment. It truly was a bonding experience akin to the one I hope to experience in my new sorority.