[mtcgirl]

I forgot to mention I'm theming my story with characters from "Charmed." We have Phoebe, Piper, and Prue at my school. We also have delayed recruitment.

I was fairly unsure about Greek life going into school. My mom, grandmother, and brother were all affiliated and had great experiences, but they went to schools that are very different from mine. They all went to larger private universities in the Northeast, whereas I am at a small liberal arts school in Wisconsin. I knew my school had Greek life, but I didn’t know what to expect from it. Since my mom was fairly encouraging about having an open mind (she understands that Greek culture is different on every campus), I found myself on the school website looking at each of the three chapter’s national and chapter pages. I hate to say that I judged a lot on their websites, and before even getting to school I was convinced the “best” sorority was Piper because of their superior website. But I kept an open mind, and spent my first term not thinking about people in terms of their affiliation, and this leads me to the first Greek-related event that I attended, a “mocktails” info session.

As I said I knew I wanted to check it out, but the friends I made my first term were almost staunchly anti-Greek. It was quite hurtful when they snobbishly declared that they had no interest in something so backwards thinking. It became a sort of taboo topic in the group we had formed, so when it came to the info session, I walked the path to the upperclassmen dorm where it was held alone and slightly intimidated. Through student groups, I actually had a connection in each of the sororities. My RLA, a total sweetheart, was a Prue; the president of a club I was involved with was a Phoebe; and a girl I totally bonded with at a campus event was a Piper. Maybe unfortunately and maybe luckily, none of them were present at the info session, so I got to talk to girls other than the ones I already knew.

We walked in and I tried not to feel underdressed in my dark jeans and flats. All of the admins for each chapter looked so put together in business casual clothes. Luckily, as RCs and other chapter members filtered in I felt much more comfortable. Each chapter did a short presentation, and then there was lots of mingling. I wasn’t particularly moved by any presentation so, to the mingling.

I walked over to a group of Prues, with an RC who was actually from my hometown. We all talked, and they told me why they loved Prue, how great their sisterhood was, etc. It was really sweet, but I don’t remember feeling anything strong towards these women.

I was feeling awkward and went to get myself a mocktail, when I was approached by a Phoebe. Again I ended up in a group of girls from the same chapter, but it felt different. One girl was wearing an adorable dress with her sorority’s flower adorning it, and we talked a little bit about fashion. Then I spoke to another Phoebe about the rowing team and other sports at school.

All of a sudden it was close to nine, and I had hardly mingled with any Pipers. I walked over to a group to approach the Piper who had hosted me when I was a prospective student, but they were very involved in their conversation and I didn’t even get the chance to say hello. I was a little put out by this, but how much I connected with Phoebe and how sweet the Prues were left me feeling good about the whole thing.

One six week winter break later, and it was formal recruitment…