Okay, so now with all the boring background info out of the way, we can start the actual Rush story
I kept a diary of this whole experience, so fortunately I have a pretty detailed account.
My roommate, who I'll call Alex, was pretty rebellious and completely anti-sorority, but she signed up for recruitment because I was doing it.
So the sororities at this school are:
ORANGE
SLATE
LIME
PURPLE
The first day was Open House, and we went to each of the sororities. Each sorority has a designated hall in lieu of houses, and for Open House they each had a different room on campus.
Alex & I were in the same Rho Gamma group. The first sorority we visited was
PURPLE. I was absolutely
terrified of their screaming and shouting! Our Rho Gamma had warned us it might be a little loud, but I still wasn't prepared. I saw the two girls from my hometown, and neither one acknowledged me. I started to feel a little sick-- I absolutely hate any sort of conflict, & it was killing me to know they thought that I didn't want to join their sorority, and even more so, it killed me to know that there was nothing I could say or do to let them know that I had simply made a very childish and naive mistake in posting that comment on a public website (for the record, the comment didn't say anything negative in the least. It was more along the lines of, "I'm so excited for recruitment, I already really love
LIME!" Still naive, yes, but not negative in the least). Anyway, the girl who talked to me didn't seem to be very interested in anything I had to see and spent most of the party talking to Alex because they had a mutual friend. She did tell me that she knew who I was and that I had gone to high school with the other two girls. I left the party overwhelmed and confused.
My next stop was at
LIME, and I couldn't have been more excited. Girl #1 from my hometown met me at the door and led me to a table. Girl #2 from my hometown stopped by to say hi, and brought the president over. I fell even more in love with the girls during this round. They were all so bubbly and excited to see us, and really made me feel special. I left the party
knowing this is where I wanted to be.
Next up was
SLATE. I had heard they didn't have a very strong membership, but I was met at the door by one of my orientation leaders, and she introduced me to several of her sisters. Their philanthropy was something that I really care about, and I LOVED their mascot. The next girl I talked to gave me a really weird vibe, though-- almost like she was kind of angry that she had to be there. I left with pretty mixed feelings about this sorority. On the one hand, I loved my orientation leader and the philanthropy, but on the other hand, the second girl was kind of awkward and they didn't have the best reputation on campus (don't judge me too harshly, I was 18 and admittedly very immature/naive!).
My last stop was at the sorority I was a legacy to,
ORANGE. I had heard very little about them since I had been on campus. I was met at the door by the cutest blonde girl. She really reminded me of a Barbie doll, and that's even what I wrote down in my rush diary that night. They had some of the best decorations I had seen, and a very cute song. I really liked the girls, and they made me feel special because they only had one other legacy that year (I found this out later), but I still felt like
LIME was home. Of course, I had two more nights to go...
At the end of the night, I didn't have too much trouble ranking them. My sheet looked like this:
1.
LIME
2.
ORANGE
3.
PURPLE
4.
SLATE
We could go back to three sororities the next day.
