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Day 2:
Philanthropy
I met with my group at 8am, and schedules were to be given out at 8.30am, with events starting at 10. I was so excited. I had had an awesome day the day before, talking to so many wonderful girls, and as I had volunteered a lot in high school, philanthropy day was the day which I was most excited about.
At 8.35, I was given my event schedule, and my heart dropped. I didn’t have seven chapters, or even five. I had four. I felt terrible. The two chapters from the day before, ROCKY ROAD and CHOCOLATE CHIP, which had told me that they couldn’t wait to talk to me tomorrow had dropped me. I felt awful, and immediately I doubted myself. Was it because of the way I looked? Was it because my makeup didn't look right, or was I not thin enough? All the girls in the chapters seemed so perfect, so put together and I just felt so insufficient in comparison.
I gave myself five minutes to wallow in my sadness, and then I pulled myself together. Looking at my schedule again, I still had BROWNIE, my favorite from the day before, as well as WAFFLES, PANCAKES and CHEESECAKE. They were all great houses, and I would be so lucky to join any one of them.
What was I even worried about? Numbers? I only needed one house in the end anyway. The chapters who didn’t invite me back obviously did so for a reason, and if it was a superficial one, then I wouldn’t want to be their sister anyway. If it was for a non-superficial reason, then they know their chapters better than mine, and they’re sure to know how good a fit I’d be with them. A smile on my face, I went off to my first event at 10am.
The one difference between this day and the first day was that I was no longer going around with my recruitment group, I was now on my own, having to find the rooms and line up outside the doors. I was terrified that I was going to get lost or be late and be dropped from a house. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case.
I went to WAFFLES first, and while I felt slightly iffy about them the day before, I was now absolutely in love. They had alumni handing out drinks, and there was something about that which just touched my heart. The fact that these women were WAFFLEs so many years ago, yet they held their organization in their heart these many years later and were willing to come back and support their organization just meant so much. I didn’t completely understand their philanthropy at first, but after watching a video about it, I was nearly in tears. We then went over to tables to do the craft, making little tutus out of tulle. I spent more time talking to the girl in the chapter than doing the craft, as I didn’t want to seem rude, as if I was more interested in the craft than I was in her. One thing that I noticed with my rusher was that she kept looking away, almost as if she was bored with me. I put this down to my paranoia, but as she walked me out, my heart soared. I was so happy, I loved this chapter!
In between WAFFLES and my second chapter, CHEESECAKE, I had a two hour break. Sitting with five or six of my friends, it was SO HARD not to talk about recruitment. We were told that if we talked about the houses which we went to or our conversations, we could be released from recruitment. Obviously, I didn’t want that, so we got to know each other, talking about where we were from and a little about ourselves. Not to be a tattletale, but all around us, everyone was finding it awfully hard to not to talk about their chapters. So hard, in fact, that they hadn’t resisted the urge, and were talking openly about the chapters which they did and didn’t like. Oh.
One of my close friends was feeling really down because people seemed to widely be putting down the chapter which she loved so much. I reminded her that different chapters are for different people, and as long as she likes the chapter and they like her back, that’s all that really matters, as cheesy as that sounds.
When the two hours were up, I went off to CHEESECAKE, a spring in my step. This was another house which I had not been sure about the day before, especially as it had felt like a total disaster the day before, but after how much I had loved WAFFLES, I really wanted to give this house a chance. This was the one house which I felt was being their true selves, and not putting on a front for recruitment. Obviously every house wants to appear to be their best during recruitment, but this house was just felt so original, down to the fact that they all did their own little dances to their songs, as opposed to all doing movements in unison.
I was walked in by my rusher, and we sat down together at a table in front of a large projector screen. I talked to the girl for a few minutes, and she confessed to me that this hadn’t been her first choice, but she had learned to love it as she went. I thought this to be a rather strange admission, but just put it down to their whole honestly policy. She explained the sorority’s philanthropies, one of which directly affected my mom a few years ago. I talked about how I’d volunteered in high school, and she noted that one of the activities which I’d volunteered with in high school was one which she had applied for, and they had offered her a job. Small world, huh? Their craft took about five seconds to do, but I liked the fact that it wasn’t a distraction from our conversation like it had been in other chapters. I left this chapter again, feeling pretty good.
I then had my last two events in a row. I rushed off to PANCAKE. This was another case of not really being sure about the sorority the first day, but falling in love the second. The girl who I talked to was so passionate about their philanthropy, and even though she was a senior and had a heavy workload, she was still super involved with her philanthropy as it meant so much to her. I noted in my rush booklet that I it seemed like a great chapter, but I wasn’t sure if it was a right fit for me.
I went to BROWNIE last. Last two days in a row. You would have thought this would have been my least favorite house, but instead they were my favorite. The only thing which wasn’t great about this house was the video which they showed, a slideshow of pictures set to music, but I’m looking for sisterhood, not video production skills!! These girls seemed so passionate about their philanthropy, and I felt it too. They gave us a cute little drink with sugar crystals around the rim. Did I drop those crystals all down my dress as well as managing to pour some of the drink on me too? Of course I did! Just my luck. Luckily, this was my last house of the day, and my rusher seemed to laugh it off. As she was walking me out, she talked about how her big had graduated, but they were so close, and their families treated them like one of them, going to each others’ school plays and thanksgiving dinners. I loved this house so much, but was so desperately terrified that they might not see the same in me, and not invite me back.
I wasn’t able to rank, as we were going back to five the next day, and I only had four, so I wrote the four in in alphabetical order, as told. I loved all four of them, but there was just something about BROWNIE that I wanted so much to be one of them.
After turning in my ranking, it hit me. How was I ever going to wait a week to find out?
The week break in between was awful! I worried myself sick, unsure if the houses that I loved would want me back, or even if I would be dropped from recruitment altogether.
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