Should I rush?

[beachbunny]

Hi everyone,

This upcoming year I will be a sophomore at a big southern university with a very competitive rush. I didn't even consider rushing my freshman year because I (stupidly!) assumed Greek life wasn't for me - but this past semester I met some girls in one of the sororities on campus and visited their house a few times. I really admired their sisterhood and pride in their sorority and now I'm thinking about rushing an NPC sorority myself.

The only problem is that my grandmother is struggling with cancer and so my family has planned a vacation for us all to go and visit her - for the exact same week as rush.

I'm really struggling with whether I should rush or not because I know that this is probably my last chance to see my grandmother and be together with the whole family, but I also would like to rush - and because rush at my school is so competitive, I feel like this might be my last chance to do that successfully as well. Many of the sororities on my campus don't participate in informal spring rush, and I've heard that it is very hard (if not impossible) to get a bid as a junior.

My family is really against Greek life in general (they haven't even given it a chance!), so I'm not a legacy of any organizations, and I'm from a small town in a different state from my school so we don't have an alum group. I'm not sure where I should turn to get references - I feel like it's something I should really try to do. I do have one letter from an alum who works with my dad and also one from a friend who is an active at another school's chapter (should I bother to send this in? I'm not sure if it will even be considered since she is an active and not an alum).

I'm also not exactly the most confident person in the world - I've been working on this but I'm still not sure I have anything special that would shine through during rush. Any suggestions for getting OVER THIS (cause I know I need to!)?

I'm sorry for being so whiny about this, but I just feel like there is nowhere else I can turn - my friends and family aren't really supportive of me in this. Thank you all in advance for any advice you can offer!