:: WARNING - LONG MESSAGE AHEAD! ::
Everyone here seems to be sharing stories about their formal rush expereinces. However, I didn't do that - I went through informal rush, or, Continuous Open Bidding (COB). COB is a lot different 'cause there are no set schedules and the PNM can really approach whichever houses she wants. In that way, one has to make snap decisions. The year I went, all of the 7 sororities qualified for COB. So, the Panhellenic held an Information Night. After that, each house was left on it's own to come up with whatever events it wanted to do.
Wait, I want to tell a quick side story: The reason I went is because my very anti-conformist artsy-fartsy friend was against greek life. She told me a story how, one evening she complained loudly in the dorm dining hall about how lame greeks were. A fraternity guy turned around and politely asked her if she had ever been to a greek event or knew anyone personally. She admitted she hadn't. He invited her to a party and advised that she at least give greeks a chance before knocking them. To my surprise she accepted the invite. She told me that she thought he handled her commentary well, she was impressed. At any rate, she invited me to go with, but I had class or something. Afterwards, she said that it wasn't at all like she thought. She had more respect, but she still thought going greek was lame. You know, conformity.
At any rate, I certainly didn't share her views, but I realized that I hadn't really given greek life a chance either. That's why I decided to wander by the Information Night.
At my school, there are seven sororities:
Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Phi
Delta Delta Delta
Delta Gamma
Delta Zeta
Gamma Phi Beta
Sigma Kappa
Because of the reasoning I just explained to you, I wasn't set on the idea of joining a sorority. I just wanted to check them out. I didn't know how to go about it, or what to wear. I remember that I thought I should dress up a little, so I wore a nice pair of black slacks and a white dress shirt of sorts. I probably looked like I was going to a job interview or something!
I remember looking around at the other girls rushing and noticing that they all looked like they had just stepped out of a fashion show. They all had perfectly combed hair and perfect clothes. I thought "Oops...I guess I'm underdressed..."
Hehe...I also decided before hand that I was not going to allow anyone to intimidate me. So, I prepared some questions in my head; you know, things I would like to know about each house. I figured, I'm not going to allow them to "audition" *me*, I'm going to audition *them*!
You know what? That strategy worked.
Anyhow, here's how it went:
Each house had a table set up inside the ballroom we were in. There were several sisters at each table. Our student union is set up in a neat way. Outside the ballroom there are little rooms that each house had a mixer type thing going on. That was kinda cool....to get a more in-depth look at each. Ok, so we were finally allowed to get up and start looking!
I turned towards the table that was nearest to me. The house was GPhiB and I had an opinion the second my eyes hit them. I immediately noticed that the girls were all the same height, same ethnicity, the same hair color and hair cut. Same, same, same. It was kinda scary really. But, I had a very positive attitude and approached anyway. I looked over the materials for a minute. NO ONE introduced herself. The girls just stood there gossiping about someone with their backs to me. I finally introduced myself and asked if they could tell me a bit about their philanthropy. I'll never forget it, one of the girls turned and gave me a VERY half-hearted response - something like, "Oh...uhm...we support a camp for hearing impaired children" and then turned back to her gossiping. A few seconds later, another PNM, who looked just like them, asked a question and they all lit up and were very friendly. I remember feeling like I wanted to laugh; I found it amusing.
The next house was completely opposite. When I saw the Alpha Omicron Pi girls, they were waiting eagerly to speak to rushees. I saw that they were different ethnicities, shapes and sizes. That was appealing to me. I introduced myself and found the ladies to be sincere, helpful and definitely not fake. I decided I'd like to check them out further.
The next group was Delta Zeta. Oh my goodness. The second I walked up they were all so verrrrry friendly. I recall them as being slightly superficial, but very enthusiastic. Lots of hugging. I already had a good impression of DZ before I walked in. I had been on the rowing team the year before - one of my teammates was a DZ who had transferred. (unfortunately, I didn't see her at info night). She was really cool and spoke highly of DZ. The DZ girls really seemed to like me. They immediately started inviting me to other events they had going on.
After DZ was Tri-Delta! Again, lots and lots of hugging. Now, I'm not an unfriendly person, I just thought it was odd that so many complete strangers wanted to hug me. That sort of put me off. I don't know...I just wasn't feeling it. They were friendly, but it seemed superficial. I wanted to move on to the next house, but the girl rushing me literally grabbed me by the wrist and started pulling me through the crowd to introduce me to the others. She realllllly wanted me to come to one of their events later. Because they seemed to like me so much, I thought I'd go ahead and give them a second look.
Next was Sigma Kappa. Like DZ, two of the girls on my rowing team were in SK and were really neat people. That said, I went in with SK in mind already. I was quickly disappointed. The girl I spoke to wasn't very friendly; she gave me the impression that she didn't like me. I didn't see my teammates anywhere. I tried to talk to other sisters but they gave me the brush off. I got the hint. That bummed me out because I liked SK.
Next I saw Delta Gamma. Frankly, I didn't even stop to look because I already felt like it wasn't for me. Now, I'm not saying that there was anything wrong with DG. They're alright girls...one of the sisters was also in an academic honor society with me. I guess...hrm..I just didn't dig the sailor theme.
Finally, the last house was Alpha Phi. I couldn't even get close to the table because it was crowded with PNMs. I noticed that the girls, PNMs and actives, who were crowded around all looked like they were the "cream of the crop." Funny enough, that's the impression I had of them before. (One of my roommates had several Alpha Phi friends and she always spoke of them as if they were the elite girls or something). Now, I consider myself to be a valuable person and all, but I didn't think I had a chance. I skipped Alpha Phi.
Ok, I'm going to stop here for now so that I can take a breather and you all can let it sink in.
I don't mean to keep anyone in suspense or anything.
......Kelly
