I remember going through recruitment like it was yesterday. I was a shy, nervous sophomore who wanted to find a place where I could feel at home on campus. In an attempt to get more involved on campus and make more friends, I decided to sign up for recruitment one sunny day in August.
From the outside, the recruitment process looks anything but normal. In the past few weeks, campus has become flooded with girls in fancy dresses, high heels, and name tags rushing from one event to the next. Sorority members run on little to no sleep and spend hours rehearsing songs and conversations. Videos of sorority girls singing, clapping, and proudly wearing their letters appear all over the internet, giving off the appearance that sorority life is similar to a women's chorale. People look at sorority videos online and compare it to some type of cult, all while clapping door videos go viral, only making that accusation worse.
I'm not going to lie, going through recruitment I was overwhelmed walking through the first sorority's door only to be faced by many singing, smiling, clapping girls all dressed in the same outfits. They all appeared perfect, and I couldn't help but find myself wondering if this was what sorority life was like. So I can see why people would judge it from the outside looking in, because it does look weird. But the thing they don't tell you on the outside, is that sorority life is so much more than recruitment.
When I joined Alpha Delta Pi the beginning of my sophomore year, my college experience completely transformed. I went from a timid girl to a confident sorority woman. Being in a sorority is not wearing matching outfits every day, feeling superior to any one else on campus, or any type of exclusivity. Being in a sorority is the friends you can always rely on. It's the times I've spent dancing all night with my sisters. It's the late night pizza runs and the car pools to chapter. It's the times I've spent laughing surrounded by my best friends. It's the place on campus that has given me a home away from home.
Joining a sorority is more than going from round to round having casual conversations, it's being able to call any one of your sisters and knowing they'd be there in a heartbeat. So as recruitment has officially come and gone, and new girls enter into an incredible chapter in their lives, it is important to remember that sorority life is more than recruitment. When new members embrace their new homes on Bid Day, they are entering into a sisterhood that will hold them up when they think they are going to fall and love them unconditionally no matter what. Sorority life is more than the singing and the clapping and the bumping, it is a place that any sister can be proud to call home.
