A mom's Ole Miss Candy Crush Rush Story

[skgirl47]

I'm the mother of a freshman at Ole Miss and who had a tough experience during my own rush in college. All I can say is, though I ended up where I was supposed to be, it was excruciating! In short, I ended up getting cut from all the houses I liked and I dropped from rush. It was like a knife in my heart, daggers to my soul, and I thought my life was over at the time! But a new sorority colonized on my campus the following year and I joined and it turned out to be the best of all my college experiences!! So it had a happy ending, just as so many rush stories do.

As all you moms out there know, sometimes it's harder to be a mom watching your beloved daughter go through the system. You know she's beautiful, inside and out, and smart, talented, and perfect, but you have no control, no say in the outcome and you have to sit by quietly and watch! (usually from your home so far away!) And anxiously wait for texts, IMs, calls, etc… without being able to do a thing!!

So, all I prayed for during rush at the notoriously competitive recruitment at Ole Miss was for my daughter not to get her heart broken as I had! Here's my daughter's rush story:

There are 10 sororities at Ole Miss. In no particular order, they are:
Reeses
Butterfingers
Snickers
Kit Kats
3 Musketeers
Tootsie Rolls
Milky Ways
Peppermint Patties
M & Ms
Hershey's Kisses

I'll personify my daughter as Little Red Riding Hood, making her way around the Candy Crush forest, trying not to get eaten by the BBW!

A bit about Little Red: First of all, she's from out of state, which, for some sororities, is a handicap! Second, she knows very few actives at Ole Miss when she moves into her dorm on move-in day. She has a good friend in MilkyWay, knows a couple of Kit Kats and one 3 Musketeers. Her mom (that's me!) has scoured her friends and acquaintances and gotten 5-8 rec letters and LOS to each of the houses except M & Ms, where she only has 2. Red has a 3.5 GPA and has been pretty active at her high school, and has several awards. Note that Ole Miss has a delayed Recruitment, not starting until Sept. 14.

Please keep in mind this is "as told to Mom", so I may have the days or number of parties slightly off. This is based on many emotional convos, so I'm doing my best!

Day One: Little Red goes to all 10 houses. She loves M&Ms and Milky Ways the best, ranking them top two, followed by Kit Kat, Peppermint Patties, Tootsie Rolls, Butterfingers, 3 Musketeers, Hershey's Kisses, Reeses, and Snickers. Her rationale is that, even though they sort of ran together, she can see herself in most of the houses except Snickers and Reeses, which didn't fit her personality at all.

Day Two: Her Gamma Chi tells her one house has cut her, and it's Milky Way. Wait a sec, that's the house where she has a good friend! She calls me to tell me about it. You could have knocked me over with a feather when she told me it's OK, she's not going to let it bother her! She still loves M&Ms and she's going to focus on what she has, not who cut her. I'll tell you, as a mom, I couldn't sleep that night, I was so upset! But, it's not about me and I just praise my sweet daughter and tell her how proud I am of her!! She goes back to eight parties, because Snickers had her high on their list and she's put back in, even though she dropped them the first day.

On Days two and three, it's Philanthropy Days, and she still likes M&Ms the best, followed by Peppermint Patty, Tootsie Rolls, Kit Kats, Butterfingers, and 3 Musketeers. Again, she is not impressed with Snickers and ranks them last, and with Hershey's Kisses she is completely turned off with because, although she had a nice convo with some of the girls, she hears from some of the other PNMs that they were asking inappropriate questions. Questions such as: Did you go to public or private school? What kind of car do you drive?, ect… A definite turn off. so she drops them as well.

For Days Four and Five, Little Red gets her party list and she has been dropped from Butterfingers. This stings a little, but is OK because it wasn't her favorite house. Her party list includes M&Ms (still her top choice), Kit Kats, 3 Musketeers, Tootsie Rolls, and Pepermint Patties. She drops 3 Musketeers, because she doesn't feel the girls are "real", they come off as rather snooty and Red doesn't feel she would fit in.

When she does her list for round three, she ranks M&Ms first, followed by Peppermint Patties, Tootsie Rolls, Kit Kats. She is afraid she might get dropped by M&Ms which by now she totally loves, because the girl she knows the best in that house has picked her up twice. Even though she has met the president and recruitment chair of the house, she is afraid she will be picked up by someone she doesn't know and the convo won't go as well! She feels very nervous, but excited.

Turns out the parties go very well, especially for M&Ms, where she is so happy, she cries to me on the phone that she wants that house the most! The skit there was so well done, almost professional quality! Overall, all the skits were amazing.

Next step: Preference! She gets her party list back from her Gamma Chi, and surprise! She has a full list! Now she has to pick her top two. Without a doubt, she puts M&Ms as her favorite, with Peppermint Patties as the second.

Preference Day… She cries at M&Ms and the girl who preffs her cries, too. It is a very emotional night! She loves Peppermint Patties, and wishes she could somehow pledge both, but knows that it can only be one. Her roommate also preffs M&Ms, along with Kit Kats. They are very excited to think they could be sisters!!

Big day tomorrow… I'll post soon!