Before I went through formal recruitment in the fall I had few close friends that I could depend on. I was nervous that I wouldn't find a house for me, and that even if I did, I wouldn't feel like I was apart of anything special.
My whole family has revolved around sororities and fraternities since there time in college, so I especially felt obligated to join one. The obligation I felt was almost as a burden. If I didn't join one I deemed good or if I joined one I didn't feel at home at, I had failed. I didn’t want to let the illusion of my families expectations down.
I’m not going to lie to you, fall formal recruitment was the best and worst week of my life. Sitting in the hot sun combined with Alabama humidity when you sweat in 70-degree weather was not ideal by any means. I walked into every house soaked head to toe with sweat.
Some of the girls said they didn’t care but I could tell they thought it was gross (lucky me!). It wasn’t until I went to my final house of the first day that I felt like I wasn’t judged by how I looked or how soaked I was. They cared about who I was and what I was like. That moment stuck with me the rest of rush.
On bid day I was nervous to open my bid card, for I had only felt like I belonged with my number one choice. If I had gotten my bottom two I still would've been happy, but I’m not so sure if I would’ve belonged.
Later that day, I met a girl on the bus to the pledge retreat from the same state as me and we stuck together the rest of the weekend. This girl ended up being one of my best friends who I still constantly been around since August.
Sororities seem as if they're a place for women with money go to buy their friends and a place to go to make frenemies that they’ll probably never talk to after college. It’s not. My sorority has given me sisters that I don't know how I could've survived freshman year without. They’re there for you in your darkest and brightest moments. Through thick and thin. They don't judge you for who you are or for your weird tendencies or even for the boys you like.
Sisters are there for you when you feel as if you have no one else to turn to. A sorority is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me because now instead of having two maybe three people who I could turn to in a time of need, I have hundreds who are willing to drop anything and everything to be with me and make sure I’m OK.
If you think sororities are a place to buy fake friends, you’re dead wrong. A sorority is so much more than that and it means so much more than that to me.
