Fall '03 Recruitment Story

[sunrise876]

Code:

Hearts
Stars
Horse Shoes
Clovers
Blue Moons

[named after Lucky Charm's shapes in case you didn't pick up on it]

[disclaimer: sorry if this is super detailed, I kinda ramble sometimes]

My recruitment story takes place at a school where Greek life was not super competitive but still popular enough that not every person going through got a bid or got their first choice.
When I was in high school, the Greek system never really interested me because I wasn’t really the “typical” dumb blonde that many movies and tv show’s portrayed. I really had no interest in joining a Greek organization. Recruitment at my school took place the week after classes began and I can honestly say that I didn’t know a whole lot about the Greek system. My mother was in one of the sororities at the school I was going to so that was the only one I really knew about. My mom was not one of those people who insisted her daughter rush. I have 2 older sisters who attended schools where they were legacies and had chosen not to go through recruitment. After talking to my mom, she suggested that I go to rush because it would be a great way for me to meet people since I was quite shy. So I decided to go ahead and fill out the forms for recruitment.
Honestly, none of the sororities had reputations that I knew of, I only learned of these reputations after I received my bid.
So on with the story…..

Meeting the girls….
The first day of recruitment took place on Saturday afternoon. Each sorority had a booth set up in one of the gyms with pictures and info about their various community service.
I never really was nervous about recruitment until about an hour before the event started. What if I was boring? What if my outfit wasn’t right? What if no one liked me? I remember calling my mom right before and she told me “I did these rush events for 4 years, just be yourself”. As cliché as that advice is, it really did calm me down. I was going to be myself and if they didn’t like me, that was their problem. I got dressed in my dorm room with another girl on my floor named Jenna. I remember her wearing a cute sundress while I opted for a yellow and white striped tee shirts, grey jeans, and cute flip flops. After all, the flier did say “casual”.
As I walked to the door of the gym with Jenna I tried to calm my nerves but many thoughts still went through my mind, what if I didn’t like any of the girls, or what if they didn’t like me? When we opened the door there was a table set up and a girl gave me a name tag and walked me towards the first booth while Jenna got taken to another one. In retrospect, this was a good idea. Being on my own would not allow me to cling to Jenna for nerves and vice versa.

----


The first booth I went to was Hearts. All of the Hearts girls seemed really nice and friendly right away. I was a little intimidated because all of the girls I meet were really beautiful [not that I was ugly, but it still made me a little insecure from the outside looking in]. I quickly realized that I didn’t really have to worry about making conversation because they asked all the questions. From the looks of it, it seemed like this particular sorority was of really high interest because tons of other girls who were all dolled up were flocking to this booth. However, conversation flowed really naturally with a all the girls I meet. Ironically, they complimented my outfit sincerely, hinting that a lot of the other girls were trying to hard. I stayed at this booth for probably half an hour just talking about random things. Soon, these girls didn’t seem quite so frightening and I could picture myself with them. It was a good start to recruitment.

The next booth I was sent to was Blue Moon. This house by far had the smallest chapter, but I didn’t want to hold that against them. However, what I would come to hold against them was the fact that they didn’t really talk to me at all. They just kept asking me if I had any questions about them. I wanted to shout “no! I don’t know anything about you, that’s what today is supposed to be for!” But I didn’t want to make a scene so I decided against it and quickly left.

The next booth was Clover’s. I had a family member in this sorority at a different school so I was especially interested in joining them, however, I was severely disappointed. These girls, I hate to say, were pretty stuck up. However, not wanting to let a few bad seeds spoil the bunch I wanted to keep an open mind. One thing that kinda set me off about this group was this group didn’t seem very concerned with their philanthropy at all. However, I stayed there for a good 25 minutes and managed to make some decent conversation with a few of them.

The next booth was Horse Shoes. At first glance, I liked how diverse this group was and how friendly they were. Conversation flowed so freely with this group that I could really see myself with these girls. We had a lot in common and a ton of the girls didn’t bump me for 15 minutes or hung around me while [unintentionally] ignoring other pnm’s. I could see looks of jealousy in some of the other pnm’s because I felt truly comfortable in this group. It was awesome.

After I had talked to everyone, I moved on to the last booth, Star’s. Star’s was the house in which I was a legacy so I was also very interested in this house. I didn’t think any house could top Horse Shoe’s but wanting to keep an open mind, I continued on. This was, from what I heard pnm’s say, was one of the most popular houses. After a few awkward silences with a few of the girls, conversation finally picked up and it felt good. I quickly realized how much I already loved these girls and had so much in common with them. I realized later that I left there without really talking to them about their house, we just talked about ourselves. I felt like myself here, I could joke around and they didn’t look at me like I was an idiot.

By the time I left it was dark and on my way back I had a lot of thinking to do. In my head Star’s and Horse Shoe’s were about even.

[sunrise876]

Ya, I only heard of gc a few months ago and I've been on here as a guest since. I have so much fun reading other people's stories that I decided to post my own.

[srmom]

Thanks for posting your story! And, welcome!!

[sunrise876]

Thanks, I wish I knew about gc a lot sooner! It's fun hearing other people's stories and posting my own. I remember my recruitment expierence like it was yesterday!

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by sunrise876

Thanks, I wish I knew about gc a lot sooner!

Wish GC was around when I rushed*.


*Terminology gives away the age.

[sunrise876]

I'll be sure to post day 2 later today.

[sunrise876]

Originally Posted by Benzgirl

Wish GC was around when I rushed*.


*Terminology gives away the age.

I think the "retro" rush stories are the most interesting. I remember when my mom told me her rush story, she rushed in the early 70's when they actually called it "rush".

[groovypq]

Originally Posted by Benzgirl

Wish GC was around when I rushed*.


*Terminology gives away the age.

I don't know, I hear a lot of the PNMs at my school right now calling it "rush." Clearly they're not up-to-date and hanging out on GC.

[sunrise876]

To clarify...I know it's technically called "recruitment". I call it both rush and recruitment, mainly because I grew up with my mom calling it rush. Either way I'm going to assume you guys know what I mean ;]

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by sunrise876

I think the "retro" rush stories are the most interesting. I remember when my mom told me her rush story, she rushed in the early 70's when they actually called it "rush".

With 18 houses and throwing away my Rush Guide many moons ago, I could only tell about 25% of of it. I can say that Alpha Gamma Delta was one of my favorites during Round 1, though.

[sunrise876]

Originally Posted by Benzgirl

With 18 houses and throwing away my Rush Guide many moons ago, I could only tell about 25% of of it. I can say that Alpha Gamma Delta was one of my favorites during Round 1, though.

I journaled about it [I know I'm a dork] so that helped a lot. And I keep everything, I never throw anything away! ;] I guess I'm also lucky we had fewer houses, I liked the small greek system my school had, but I think going to a big school with a huge greek system would be exciting!

[sunrise876]

Day 2….
This took place on Sunday in the same venue and it was the day we learned about their philanthropy. I dressed quickly in a pair of shorts and a babydoll tank top

The first booth I was taken to was for Blue Moon. I was a little apprehensive about them because they seemed really standoffish. But after I got over my nerves I sucked it up and hung out with them for a little bit. They didn’t seem to interested in me and only really spoke to each other. But hey, some people are just nervous. I still thought they were ok.

I moved on to the next group, The Hearts. Although I had gotten along great with these girls the day before, today not so much. There were a ton of pnm’s of the table and the Heart’s seemed way more interested in them than me. Barely any of them spoke 2 words to me and it really made me feel like I was not good enough for them or they had decided to reject me all the sudden. I was heartbroken needless to say and since I felt so uncomfortable sitting there by myself not being talked to, I awkwardly excused myself to the next booth.

The next booth was the Clover’s. I wasn’t to stokked on them either, I pretty much got the same treatment from them That I got from Hearts. In my mind I was thinking am I dressed wrong? Did I say something offensive? What is going on? I made some conversation with a girl in the house who was actually really nice and I felt a little better.

I moved on to the Horse Shoes. I was really excited about this group and a ton of the girls came over, abandoning other pnm’s, to sit by me. These girls seemed super nice but I noticed that a few of them were subtly bad-mouthing other sororities and that turned me off. I had met girls that I could become close friends with from pretty much all the houses and I didn’t want to be in a house that was negative to other houses. I tried to shake it off and besides that had a blast with these girls.

Then finally I went to Star’s. These girls just seemed so genuine and a lot of them came over to talk to me, saying they had “heard of me”. I was hoping this was a good thing. I soon realized that I was sitting by 3 other pnm’s who were legacies and they all seemed pretty cool. But what if the house liked them better than me?
At the end of the night, The sororities would chose which girls would be allowed the go on house tours at their house, but we didn’t get to rank them. I left feeling apprehensive but still good about a few of the houses.

I had to wait until Friday to go on house tours and let’s just say, it was a long week!

[srmom]

With 18 houses and throwing away my Rush Guide many moons ago, I could only tell about 25% of of it.

That's my situation too. I have vague memories of being shocked at the door chants the first day, but don't remember much beyond that.

I have much more distinct memories of rush from the other side, and can still do the entire wall song complete with hand signs and motions. Pretty good for an old lady who has trouble remembering what I did yesterday!! LOL!

[Zeta13Girl]

Update??