[elle1776]

Day 3: Philanthropy/Sisterhood

I was exhausted. I felt like I hadn’t slept at all the night before from nervousness. I knew that I really wanted my top choices and would definitely be a little disappointed if I got my schedule that afternoon and didn’t have any. My rho gamma group had slowly gotten smaller as well. There were a few that decided to drop for various reasons but there were also many extremely sweet and well rounded girls that had been dropped from the process entirely.

I headed over to the row and was surprised to see just how many girls were upset this day. SO MANY girls were in hysterics because they only had one house left, or only had their bottom choices. It was honestly terrifying for me haha. Not only was I nervous to see my invites, but I just really didn’t expect so many girls to be sobbing at a school that isn’t necessarily known to be a “Greek School.” I had read about it at really competitive schools, but to see it here increased my stress at seeing my results. It really just shows how 1. Bad it is to fall in love with just one house before recruitment and 2. To look at a “tier system” or take other people’s opinions into consideration of how good a house is.

I finally reached my Rho Gamma and she gave me my schedule.

BLUE
CYAN
PINK
PURPLE
TURQUOISE

AHH I WAS SO HAPPY!! I got back my top 5! I was ecstatic and was absolutely pumped for the rest of the day. (Looking back now, even though this was philanthropy and sisterhood round the emphasis was really placed on sisterhood. I don’t remember talking about philanthropy with any houses. Only two of my houses showed a video/gave a super short presentation but the conversations after never dove more into the details of what they did, which was different than what I was expecting.)

BLUE: My first house of this round was BLUE. I went in super excited. This house had been super wonderful to me all week and even though it wasn't necessarily a house that was on everyone’s radar, I really liked the women here. I was picked up by one of the executive board members and she took me to their beautifully decorated patio/backyard. She was an absolute gem. We didn’t necessarily have anything on the surface in common like majors, hometowns, etc. but we immediately connected. I don’t know what it was but I felt like I had known her for years. We were laughing and joking around and even talked about some semi-serious stuff like bad breakups. I just felt so comfortable at this house. Another girl, which happened to be her little, came over to say hello and took me to where they were going to show their sisterhood video. I watched their video with the other PNMs while the actives stood around us watching it too. They were dancing and laughing and overall just having a really good time. I was having fun too but something about their video made me look around the room and really feel like I wouldn’t necessarily fit in with this house. I don’t know what it was exactly, the type of video it was or maybe I started to think about the “tier” this house was (so so so dumb looking back now), but something changed by the end of the party and I left feeling not so great even though everything had gone super well and I had a great time.

PURPLE: I headed over to PURPLE and was picked up by a really bubbly girl. She immediately sat me down to watch a video on their philanthropy which was super sweet and made a few girls around me tear up, but I wasn’t feeling it. They then showed their sisterhood video and I just kept thinking to myself that I didn’t really want to be at this party. I just felt awkward again with the video and the actives dancing around while we watched. I probably sound crazy but this house, while I had ranked it higher and had better conversations than the houses I ranked low on previous days, had not been my favorite and I was feeling it now. Everything just wasn’t clicking personally. After the video I talked to two more girls. They were really sweet again but I never got the feeling that they were genuinely interested in me. At this house I just felt like a number.

CYAN: Walking into CYAN I was grabbed by an executive board member and we had such a great conversation about animals and our pets. We started to talk about fun sisterhood events that they were going to have when another active came over. This girl was bubbly but also gave me a ditsy vibe. I honestly can’t remember what we talked about, but before long she told me it was time to go watch their video. As we were walking over she was walking ahead of me when she turned around, super super quickly, and accidentally smacked me right in the face with her hand. I was kind of stunned at first, not because I thought it was rude I totally knew it was an accident, but because it kinda hurt haha. She immediately started apologizing but what I thought was upsetting was that the other actives (who had been lined up without PMNs to watch the video) laughed when she had hit me. Now it could’ve been a nervous laugh, but it came off as kind of rude and I honestly got a little upset. My active sat me down in a chair in the back row when, not even 10 seconds later, a different active comes up to mine and says “Uhh I was going to sit my PNM there can you move her.” Like what?? There was another chair open and instead of this girl moving her PNM to the open spot she wanted me to move. So my active lead me all the way over to the other side of the room to this open chair. Maybe I was being overdramatic, but the combination of being smacked in the face, having actives laugh at what happened, and then being moved after I was already placed, just really made me upset. I held back some tears during their video and was really happy to be led out at the end.
-Side note: As the actives had stacked in the door and were doing their goodbye song there was a sudden shuffle as if someone was trying to get out. Suddenly, a PNM was thrown (like literally pushed, I’m not over exaggerating) through the actives and the president, who had been holding the door, slammed the door shut in the middle of the song. The girl had probably been in the restroom but we were all so confused and were definitely feeling sorry for this poor girl.

PINK: I was so excited for this house and I felt so happy that they had decided to invited me again. The recruitment chair gave me a hug at the door and said how happy she was to see me again. I was picked up by a girl who is bestfriends with one of my best friends. We had never met because we only had one friend in common, but we shared the same hometown and so many other interests matched. She was amazing and gave me a big hug before a senior (who had been a junior transfer) came over and we started chatting. She was so cool and I really saw her as a role model for who I wanted to be at this school. She was involved, had a similar major and was just cool. She said how much she loved me and I saw her as a potential big even after meeting just a little bit before. Girls from previous days came by to say hello as I was led over to watch their sisterhood video. This time I didn’t feel awkward as the actives shouted and danced while we watched the video, I felt at home. I didn’t want to leave but soon it was time to go and I left this house, for the third day in a row, beaming.

TURQUOISE: I was on a high from PINK and couldn’t wait to go into this house as well! I was picked up by the cutest active who lead me to watch their video afterwards we went to another room to sit and talk. We talked about the Bachelor and clubs, formals, honestly we talked about everything like we had been friends for years. Another girl came over and we clicked right away as well. The president and recruitment chair both came over at separate times also to say hello and I really felt welcomed and happy when it was time to go.

Walking over to rankings I knew immediately who I wanted to have for Preference the next round. PINK and TURQUOISE had been my favorites all week and I was practically glowing over the thought of being in these two houses. However, I knew that nothing was 100% and that how I ranked my other houses was extremely important as well. It was really a toss up between PURPLE and BLUE. CYAN was definitely not my favorite after that last party. While I had a great time at BLUE on the other days, today was I left feeling weird even after it being fun in the beginning. However, I had only liked PURPLE the day before and didn’t like it much on day 1 or today. I knew I should put BLUE down in my number 3 spot but I just couldn’t shake the fact that they weren’t really a super wanted house. I feel so dumb looking back and realizing that I thought like this now but at the time I felt so pressured by my friends to be in the cool house and the popular house. So I ranked them…

1. PINK
1. TURQUOISE
2. PURPLE
3. BLUE
4. CYAN