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Fall of my sophomore year I did not go through formal rush. Some of the desire to join a sorority had faded since I just didn’t see myself fitting in with many of the Greek women I observed on campus. I was involved with other things, had switched majors to something more time-consuming, and had started my new job. I was still living at home. But throughout the course of the fall I felt like something was missing in my college experience. Because I was commuting, it still felt like high school in some ways. Much of life revolved around the dorms and I didn’t have that natural connection on campus so I felt detached and left out.
After starting my new job, I discovered that two of my coworkers were in a sorority together. I was surprised because they didn’t fit the sorority stereotype I had come to expect. One of the women and I really hit it off. (I’ll call her Katie.) Katie spent a lot of time educating me about the Greek system, rush, etc. She talked about how much she enjoyed the diverse women in her chapter and the fun things they did together. She often wore her pin and was very proud of her national organization. She told me that five of the sororities would be holding informal rush in January, including her own chapter. Katie got the rush information for me and I was interested in four of the houses. I’ll name the sororities after four favorite vacation destinations:
Mackinac
Maine
Scotland
Vermont
So I signed up for informal rush and Katie helped me choose what to wear, etc. Without her help and encouragement I never would have made it through. After signing up, I found out that the president of one of the sororities (Vermont) was the sister of one of my brother’s good friends. So it felt good to have a connection to or know someone in two of the houses. Katie and my other coworker were in Mackinac.
One thing that I especially appreciated about the way Katie handled things was that she encouraged me to visit other chapters, not just her own. She had lots of nice things to say about the other groups, friends she had in the other houses, and their different strengths. She didn’t hide the fact that she hoped I would end up a Mackinac, but she tried to be fair to me in helping me find the sorority home that was best for me.
The first event was an informal meet and greet on Sunday afternoon. Each sorority had a table set up with a display and a couple of women there to talk with the rushees. I am not a small talk kind of person. I’m much more a have a cup of coffee and a long meaningful discussion type person. So even going to this kind of event was out of my comfort zone. But I went and talked to women at the different tables. I spent a lot of time listening to the other rushees, honestly amused at how hard some of them were selling themselves to the sorority members. (That’s just not me.) The president of Vermont was at their table and she went out of her way to rush me hard and get to know me. And obviously Katie had tipped off her sisters to look for me because I was warmly greeted at the Mackinac table as Katie’s friend and coworker.
I wasn’t very impressed by the women I met at Scotland. They weren’t very enthusiastic and it was hard to even get information out of them. They seemed kind of standoffish and uncomfortable. I’m not sure why the two of them were selected to do that kind of activity.
I had decided not to pursue Maine because their party the second night was the same time as Mackinac, my coworker’s sorority. I don’t know why Panhel let them set it up that way, but they did and so rushees had to choose between the two. It was an easy decision for me given my connection with Mackinac, but that cut the number of sororities I was visiting to three. At the end of the meet and greet I left cautiously optimistic and looking forward to the first round of parties.
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