You’ve heard right, folks. Recruitment is less than a month away! Although we can all agree recruitment isn’t as scary as it was as an incoming freshman, it can still give one the jitters.

Not only is recruitment a two-week process, but it often lasts well into the darkest hours of the night. You will lose sleep, gain blisters from those chapter-required heels, and maybe even lose your mind. To put it simply, recruitment is a total trip, but that beloved week also has a way of holding some of your favorite collegiate memories. As an incoming senior (wait, what?), I will tell you everything you need to know to have a successful recruitment week. 

1. Find shoes that look like Manolos, but feel like Crocs.. Coming from someone with a flat foot, finding comfy shoes can be harder than rocket science. Remember, you might be standing on your feet for eight straight hours. You might even be walking, chanting, and clapping down steep stairs instantaneously. Do you want to fall and twist your ankle in front of your “rush crush?” Didn’t think so. Search through the Nordstrom shoe department to find something that will be comfortable yet chic. Your cheeks might hurt from smiling, but you can rest easy knowing your feet haven’t developed blisters quite yet.

2. “Riiiiicola!” Recruitment is notorious for giving you a sore throat all week and well into Boys’ Bid Day (I capitalize it because it truly is a holiday at Texas Tech). For five days straight, you will sit in your chapter’s living room screaming at a girl who in typically only three feet away. You will then cuff your ear in hopes of hearing what she responds with. You probably still won’t hear her right, then smile and nod when she tells you she was homeless the first 10 years of her life. That’s awkward. What I mean to say is, you will be doing a lot of chanting and screaming. Chances are your voice will be raspy, if not completely gone. Trust lemon-flavored cough drops with your life. 

3. Find the Lo to your LC. Although I met my BFF at a mixer two weeks into freshman year, I met the other girls spend all my time with during work week. If I hadn’t been cooped up in my chapter’s house for two weeks, I may not have made the memories that we still recount and laugh about to this day. I would have definitely had the chance to get to know these girls and would have still become friends with them, but our friendships wouldn’t have had such a great start. If your recruitment experience in the house is anything like mine, you will be laughing until you cry daily.

4. Hairspray, breath mints, lip gloss, etc. Moving on to those things that will help you survive the week. You will need a bag of equipment. By equipment, I mean beauty tools and breath mints. Most of us wake up even earlier than required to curl and style our hair. Why? Because PNMs love curled hair! After a long day of rushing parties, your hair is bound to fall. This is why hairspray is a must. Even if it’s just a travel-sized bottle, you will need one. You will also need things like lip gloss, mascara, powder, and an eyelash curler for touch-ups. Lastly, breath mints are a necessity. Like I said, you will be three feet away from girls that you want to like you. PNMs don’t like actives with bad breath. Clean it up with an Altoid and Sally, the hottest PNM, will thank you. 

5. Enjoy every minute of it. It may seem like the days drag on forever, but I promise these are the days you will miss. Every year when the seniors stand up and share their memories, rush week and bid day never cease to come up. Truthfully, most of my favorite collegiate memories are from rush week. I had the pleasure of being in skits with my best friend where we were coincidently, best friends.  I became close to girls I hadn’t gotten the chance to know that well. I found a new appreciation for people I didn’t quite get. To put it simply, I got to spend two straight weeks with all my best friends and nothing is better than that. That’s why I enjoy every minute of recruitment.