I'm so glad that you guys are enjoying this! Here is what happened next (so that you guys don't have to wait too long
)
Preference Day
The day before preference, our Rho Chi's arrived with invitations in hand. I was nervous, but confident that I would see my beloved
Banana on this list, instead I saw:
Orange
Peach
Crushed is probably an understatement. My Rho Chi of course asked "Are you ok?" and in my shock I think I just sat there in a state of numbness. My Rho Chi knew that this was not what I wanted to see, and how much I had loved
Banana. I'm sure that she said something about two houses still wanting me, and that she would see me tomorrow. With tears coming down my cheek, I walked away.
For whatever reasons, I chose to not handle this situation in the most honorable way, and for that I will always regret. Thankfully, I have a sweet friend in my freshman roommate who forgave me for my behavior that came next. My roommate had what many would consider a picture perfect recruitment -- lots of in-house support from our hometown girls (her boyfriend's sister in
Banana, her rush-crusher in
Kiwi), and received invites back for preference night from
Grapes, Banana, and
Kiwi -- she choose to go to
Banana and
Kiwi for pref night. Back before RFM, this was the night that was probably roughest on PNMs in terms of large cuts in the houses -- and also the night of the most withdrawals from recruitment. Several girls on my dorm floor were going through recruitment, and after getting our lists some of us were lamenting in the hall about how "We have no idea what these houses were wanting" and "I just can't believe they would take ___________ over me." You get the idea, right? This conversation moved my feelings of being dropped by 5/7 houses over the last 4 days from shock to anger in a very short amount of time. By this time my roommate entered the conversation, and her non-verbal communication made it seem that the 8 of us in the hall were just poor sports. I think the exact words out of my mouth were "You shouldn't say anything, because you got everything that anyone could have possibly wanted out of rush, and are going to your top 2 houses tomorrow." Poor friend -- she ran off to call her mom immediately; and I felt horrible guilt for thinking that, let alone saying it in front of her and several girls on our floor. Now while some other things came from her conversation to her mom (Including her mom calling my mom and saying "Well, you know that some girls just aren't
Banana material." -- I think that revenge was had - ha!), but I am happy to say that we are still friends today. It's true that rush week is one of the hardest weeks of your life -- so just remember to be patient with your friends (whether they have a picture perfect recruitment or a rough one).
Of course one good thing about having a blow-up like that is you start to do some self-evaluation. For me as a Christian, it meant taking a step back and saying "Wow, God -- I screwed that up so bad. Please forgive me, and help me make better decisions about rush that are pleasing to you." Thank goodness for clean slates! I think that we all need them at times! I don't think that withdrawing from recruitment really entered my mind. I'm the type of person that finishes what I start -- so that didn't really seem like an option. The day of preference (parties were to start that night) was an annual event at one of the local campus ministries, that my roommate, her boyfriend, other hometown folks, and myself had signed up to attend. It was really a great break from the pressure of rush, and during the day while people were asking what I had been doing all week, I found myself telling them that I had been a rushee, and that I was planning on putting
Orange as my 1st choice that night. I do remember praying during the day "Lord, please make it clear where I am supposed to be."
All dressed in my black and ready to go, my first party was
Orange. The sisters at
Orange did a wonderful job at prefing me -- letting me know why they thought I would be a good Orange, and how I met and exceeded what they wanted in a sister. They did a lovely ceremony, which of course ended with some sort of wishing ceremony. Since I went into the night thinking "This is where I am supposed to be," I really just took in everything and thought that I would see these ladies at Bid Day. Overall Impression -- I think I will see you tomorrow
My final party of rush was
Peach, and I was ready to see this week end as soon as possible
I don't remember too much about the 1st half of this party, I am sure I was prefed by a gal that I had met earlier in the week, and I am sure that she talked about how well she saw me fitting into
Peach -- but to be honest, at this point I was still thinking that I would list
Orange as my #1 choice. We moved into the preference ceremony, and it was very similar to
Oranges, with sisters crying and telling us why they loved
Peach and why we should be a Peach. At the very end, the chapter president spoke and one of her final things she said is "We have been praying for you this week, and pray that you make the right decision tonight." Now that I am a little older, and have seen religious/spiritual words like that used to manipulate a situation, I may not be as trusting now as I was at that point -- but for whatever reason it started to change my mind about
Peach. We did a wishing well ceremony, and I was thinking -- yes, I do wish that I could be a
Peach.
Walking out the door from the final party, we were taken in strict silence to one of the campus cafeterias to sign our binding agreement. On the long quiet walk from
Peach, I began thinking about which house I really wanted to be. I thought about that even on open party day, I liked
Peach -- but I had really over-compared them to some of the other houses that I thought I would get invitations back to throughout the week -- that I really hadn't given them much of a chance. I remembered how I did like them much of the week, but mostly I remembered what the chapter president had just said. At that point the choice was easy -- but I still had a bit of denial in me from the day before, because there were 3 lines on my pref card (and totally not understanding how these things work at that point) I marked:
1. Peach
2. Orange
3. Banana
Oh poor, young wavycutchip -- I was pretty silly
